{"id":"MUS2026-131","label":"Nàvúni, the Kassena bird-scarer","people_or_site":"Kassena","country_current":"Burkina Faso","historic_region":"Koumbili, Pô subdivision, southern Burkina Faso","macroregion":"Africa / West Africa","local_name":"nàvúni","source_term":"Schwirrholz","source_language":"German","object_description":"Two Kassena wooden bullroarers with cord (MKB III 14404 and III 14405), collected by Kunz Dittmer in 1956. III 14404 is a flat kapok-wood slat with a burnt-in cord hole; its doubled twisted cord runs 175 cm; that of III 14405, 110 cm.","function_summary":"Swung by boys guarding the fields to drive off birds and monkeys, which are said to take the sound for a lion's roar; after the harvest it was swung for amusement.","attestation_type":"museum_specimen","source_key":"MKB_III_14404_14405","source_type":"museum_collection","source_url":"https://onlinecollection.mkb.ch?queryid=d0d5fd36-577c-43af-97cf-035f789f6880","page_or_plate":"MKB III 14404 and III 14405","map_confidence":"high","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Pô town anchor; the card's findspot is Koumbili, Subdivision Pô, Cercle de Ouagadougou (Haute Volta).","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"In Kassena country around Pô, boys guarding the ripening fields swung the nàvúni to drive off birds and monkeys — the sound, people said, could pass for a lion's roar. After the harvest, the same instruments came out simply for fun. Basel's pair, collected at Koumbili by Kunz Dittmer in 1956, are flat kapok-wood blades with burnt-in cord holes, their doubled twisted cords running as long as 175 centimetres.","pull_quote":"Wird von das Feld hütenden Knaben geschwungen, um Vögel und Affen zu vertreiben (diese sollen den Ton für Löwengebrüll halten). Ferner nach der Ernte zur Belustigung.","pull_quote_translation":"Swung by the boys guarding the fields to drive off birds and monkeys (these are said to take the sound for a lion's roar). Also, after the harvest, for amusement.","pull_quote_cite":"Museum der Kulturen Basel, digitized collection card for III 14404.","term_gloss":"nàvúni: the Kassena name for the bullroarer.","cls":"weather","class_label":"Weather / fertility magic","color":"#2F6FA3","is_candidate":false,"flags":["toy_survival"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Museum der Kulturen Basel, collection records III 14404 and III 14405","url":"https://onlinecollection.mkb.ch?queryid=d0d5fd36-577c-43af-97cf-035f789f6880","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261013021429/https://onlinecollection.mkb.ch?queryid=d0d5fd36-577c-43af-97cf-035f789f6880"}],"source_citations":"Museum der Kulturen Basel, collection records III 14404 and III 14405","source_display":"Museum der Kulturen Basel, collection records III 14404 and III 14405","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Two Kassena wooden bullroarers with cord (MKB III 14404 and III 14405), collected by Kunz Dittmer in 1956. III 14404 is a flat kapok-wood slat with a burnt-in cord hole; its doubled twisted cord runs 175 cm; that of III 14405, 110 cm.","function_display":"","confidence_display":"high","attestation_label":"museum specimen","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"kassena","display_name":"Nàvúni, the Kassena bird-scarer","image":{"full":"assets/objects/MUS2026-131_mkb_iii_14405_kassena_navuni.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/MUS2026-131_mkb_iii_14405_kassena_navuni_thumb.jpg","alt":"Kassena nàvúni collected in Koumbili by Kunz Dittmer in 1956: two overlapping flat wooden slats bundled with cord, with a small round piece on a trailing string.","credit":"Museum der Kulturen Basel, III 14405","license":"CC BY 4.0","source_page":"https://onlinecollection.mkb.ch/","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"One of the Kassena nàvúni bullroarers collected in Koumbili by Kunz Dittmer in 1956."},"slug":"mus2026-131-kassena"}