{"id":"MUS2026-089","label":"Bassari akotikoti","people_or_site":"Bassari","country_current":"Senegal","historic_region":"Etyolo, Kedougou","macroregion":"Africa","local_name":"akotikoti","source_term":"bull-roarer","source_language":"French","object_description":"Bassari rhombe from Etyolo, local name akotikoti (Quai Branly 71.1988.29.25).","function_summary":"Among the Tenda peoples, who include the Bassari, the rhombe plays an important part in the initiation of boys.","attestation_type":"museum_specimen","source_key":"europe_direct","source_type":"museum_collection","source_url":"https://collections.quaibranly.fr/ccProxy.ashx?action=get&command=search&query=/Record/ccObjectID=274651","page_or_plate":"Lestrange & Gessain 1976, pp. 244-258 (per Quai Branly object record 274651, inv. 71.1988.29.25)","map_confidence":"high","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"approximate Bassari (Salémata) territory, SE Senegal","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"A Bassari bull-roarer, locally called akotikoti, collected at Etyolo in eastern Senegal by the ethnographer Monique Gessain and published in the 1976 Musée de l'Homme catalogue of Bassari collections. It is a slender blade of Pterocarpus erinaceus wood, about 24 centimetres long, swung on a cotton cord. Viviana Pâques, writing of the Tenda peoples to whom the Bassari belong, records a religion organised inside the totemic clan with an initiation in which the rhombe plays an important part. The masks and flutes of the Bassari initiation cycle carry its spirit voices; the akotikoti had its own place in the same rite.","pull_quote":"Instrument de musique.","pull_quote_translation":"Musical instrument.","pull_quote_cite":"Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, inv. 71.1988.29.25","term_gloss":"akotikoti is the Bassari vernacular name recorded for the rhombe (bull-roarer); the museum classifies it generically as \"rhombe\" / \"Instrument de musique.\"","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":"Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, inv. 71.1988.29.25 (ex-Musée de l'Homme), Bassari rhombe akotikoti, Etyolo (Kédougou, Senegal), collected and donated by Monique Gessain","url":"https://collections.quaibranly.fr/?action=search&field=/Record/ObjectNumber&label=N%C2%B0%20de%20gestion&value=71.1988.29.25","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261013020425/https://collections.quaibranly.fr/?action=search&field=/Record/ObjectNumber&label=N%C2%B0%20de%20gestion&value=71.1988.29.25"},{"citation":"M.-T. de Lestrange & M. Gessain, Collections Bassari du Musée de l'Homme (Catalogues du Musée de l'Homme, Série C, Afrique Noire II), Paris, 1976, pp. 244–258","url":""},{"citation":"Viviana Pâques, Les peuples de l'Afrique, Tenda/Coniagui-Bassari section, citing M. de Lestrange, Les Coniagui et les Bassari (PUF, 1955)","url":"https://webguine.site/bibliotheque/ethnographie/basari-coniagui/chap1.html","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261013020447/https://webguine.site/bibliotheque/ethnographie/basari-coniagui/chap1.html"}],"source_citations":"Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, inv. 71.1988.29.25 (ex-Musée de l'Homme), Bassari rhombe akotikoti, Etyolo (Kédougou, Senegal), collected and donated by Monique Gessain; M.-T. de Lestrange & M. Gessain, Collections Bassari du Musée de l'Homme (Catalogues du Musée de l'Homme, Série C, Afrique Noire II), Paris, 1976, pp. 244–258; Viviana Pâques, Les peuples de l'Afrique, Tenda/Coniagui-Bassari section, citing M. de Lestrange, Les Coniagui et les Bassari (PUF, 1955)","source_display":"Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, inv. 71.1988.29.25 (ex-Musée de l'Homme), Bassari rhombe akotikoti, Etyolo (Kédougou, Senegal), collected and donated by Monique Gessain; M.-T. de Lestrange & M. Gessain, Collections Bassari du Musée de l'Homme (Catalogues du Musée de l'Homme, Série C, Afrique Noire II), Paris, 1976, pp. 244–258; Viviana Pâques, Les…","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Bassari rhombe from Etyolo, local name akotikoti (Quai Branly 71.1988.29.25).","function_display":"","confidence_display":"high","attestation_label":"museum specimen","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"bassari","display_name":"Bassari akotikoti","image":{"full":"assets/objects/MUS2026-089_mus2026-089-bassari-akotikoti.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/MUS2026-089_mus2026-089-bassari-akotikoti_thumb.jpg","credit":"© Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, 71.1988.29.25","license":"Rights reserved (© Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac); authorization required for reproduction; proposed for non-commercial research.","source_page":"https://collections.quaibranly.fr/?action=search&field=/Record/ObjectNumber&value=71.1988.29.25","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Bassari akotikoti from Etyolo, Senegal; wooden blade with cotton cord."},"slug":"mus2026-089-bassari"}