{"id":"MINE2026-085","label":"Luvale ndumbamwelela Mukanda bullroarer, Solochi Village","people_or_site":"Luvale / Solochi Village","country_current":"Zambia","historic_region":"Solochi Village, Chavuma / former Zambezi District, North-Western Province","macroregion":"Africa / South-Central Africa","local_name":"ndumbamwelela","source_term":"bullroarer","source_language":"English translation","object_description":"Bullroarer recorded sounding in a pair; construction not documented.","function_summary":"Announces to villagers that Mukanda will soon begin; the notes compare its sound to a lion's growl.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"MCM3008_LUVALE_NDUMBAMWELELA","source_type":"ethnomusicology_field_recording","source_url":"https://www.tronsvt.com/mcm/pdfs/MCM3008-Zambia.pdf","page_or_plate":"Track 1 notes, booklet p. 7 (Editor's Note p. 14)","map_confidence":"high","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Chavuma town anchor for Solochi Village; the booklet names Solochi but no reliable public village coordinate was located.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"At Solochi Village in August 1983, two ndumbamwelela broke into the women’s Mukanda dance with a growl said to imitate a lion. The dancers stopped, cheered, and answered with shrill cries: the sound announced that the boys’ initiation camp was about to begin. How the roar was made remained one of Mukanda’s carefully guarded secrets.","pull_quote":"This is the sound of a 'bullroarer,' called ndumbamwelela. Ndumba means lion, and the instrument is said to imitate a lion's growl. It announces to the villagers that mukanda will soon begin.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Ken'ichi Tsukada, Zambia: The Songs of Mukanda, track 1 notes.","term_gloss":"ndumbamwelela: Luvale bullroarer name; plural vandumbamwelela. The translated notes gloss ndumba as “lion.”","cls":"restricted","class_label":"Restricted","color":"#A43C2F","is_candidate":false,"flags":["initiation"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Ken'ichi Tsukada, Zambia: The Songs of Mukanda (Multicultural Media MCM 3008), booklet p. 7, track 1 (recorded Solochi Village, 8 August 1983)","url":"https://www.tronsvt.com/mcm/pdfs/MCM3008-Zambia.pdf","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20240514132603/https://www.tronsvt.com/mcm/pdfs/MCM3008-Zambia.pdf"}],"source_citations":"Ken'ichi Tsukada, Zambia: The Songs of Mukanda (Multicultural Media MCM 3008), booklet p. 7, track 1 (recorded Solochi Village, 8 August 1983)","source_display":"Ken'ichi Tsukada, Zambia: The Songs of Mukanda (Multicultural Media MCM 3008), booklet p. 7, track 1 (recorded Solochi Village, 8 August 1983)","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Bullroarer recorded sounding in a pair; construction not documented.","function_display":"Announces to villagers that Mukanda will soon begin; the notes compare its sound to a lion's growl.","confidence_display":"high","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"luvale","display_name":"Luvale ndumbamwelela Mukanda bullroarer, Solochi Village","image":{"full":"assets/objects/SUBSAH-029_subsah-029-nms-a1899-94.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/SUBSAH-029_subsah-029-nms-a1899-94_thumb.jpg","alt":"Blantyre bullroarer, late nineteenth century: a long flat brown wooden slat with rough cord looped around its ends and wound about the middle.","credit":"© National Museums Scotland, A.1899.94","license":"Rights reserved (© National Museums Scotland); rehosted for non-commercial research. Museum notice says appropriate permissions should be sought, including accompanying cultural rights and responsibilities.","source_page":"https://www.nms.ac.uk/collections/search/object?entry=339800","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"A bullroarer collected at Blantyre, Malawi.","pool_id":"zambia-malawi"},"slug":"mine2026-085-luvale-solochi-village"}