{"id":"OKOYE2020-001","label":"Agu Mmanwu, Ajikwu's invisible member","people_or_site":"Igbo of Igbo-Ukwu (Ajikwu night masquerade)","country_current":"Nigeria","historic_region":"Igbo-Ukwu, Aguata, Anambra State","macroregion":"Africa / West Africa","local_name":"Agu Mmanwu; Agummonwu","source_term":"bull-roarer","source_language":"English; Igbo","object_description":"Not recorded for Igbo-Ukwu; the regional instrument is a flat blade of wood or bamboo, 15–40 cm long, swung on a rope.","function_summary":"The voice of an invisible man-eating spirit, member of the Ajikwu night company, whose rumble announces the masquerade's emergence.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"okoye2020_igbo_night_mask","source_type":"scholarly_article","source_url":"https://nigerianjournalsonline.org/index.php/IJAAS/article/download/3282/3086/5936","page_or_plate":"pp. 8–10","map_confidence":"medium_high","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"Igbo-Ukwu town (geoview 2338640); community anchor, not a performance compound.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"The Ajikwu night company of Igbo-Ukwu has five members. The Omenikolo lead it, feared and powerful. Isimkpi, the goat head, butts intruders with his pair of horns. Oguagba chants blood-chilling incantations and sets the tune for the twin soloists. Then come the dancers. The fifth member has no body at all: Agu Mmanwu, the invisible man-eating spirit, of whom you hear only a voice like bones being crushed, a rumble like thunder. That voice is a bullroarer, and it goes first, announcing that the masquerade is about to emerge from the dark.","pull_quote":"You only hear his bone crushing timber voice.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Cyril Ike, quoted in Chike Okoye, 2020, p. 8","term_gloss":"Agu Mmanwu / agu mmonwu / agu mmuo: Igbo names of the bullroarer, as a spirit of the night masks; also ode giligili.","cls":"restricted","class_label":"Restricted","color":"#A43C2F","is_candidate":false,"flags":["spirit_voice","initiation"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Chike Okoye, 'The Effects of Sound and Darkness: Peculiar Elements in the Igbo Night Mask Tradition,' Interdisciplinary Journal of African and Asian Studies 6(2) (2020), pp. 7–10","url":"https://nigerianjournalsonline.org/index.php/IJAAS/article/download/3282/3086/5936"}],"source_citations":"Chike Okoye, 'The Effects of Sound and Darkness: Peculiar Elements in the Igbo Night Mask Tradition,' Interdisciplinary Journal of African and Asian Studies 6(2) (2020), pp. 7–10","source_display":"Chike Okoye, 'The Effects of Sound and Darkness: Peculiar Elements in the Igbo Night Mask Tradition,' Interdisciplinary Journal of African and Asian Studies 6(2) (2020), pp. 7–10","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Not recorded for Igbo-Ukwu; the regional instrument is a flat blade of wood or bamboo, 15–40 cm long, swung on a rope.","function_display":"The voice of an invisible man-eating spirit, member of the Ajikwu night company, whose rumble announces the masquerade's emergence.","confidence_display":"medium to high","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"igbo igbo","display_name":"Agu Mmanwu, Ajikwu's invisible member","image":{"full":"assets/objects/mqb/mqb_71-1935-60-20.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/mqb/thumbs/mqb_71-1935-60-20_thumb.jpg","credit":"© musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac (71.1935.60.20)","license":"© musée du quai Branly — rehosted for non-commercial research","source_page":"https://collections.quaibranly.fr/?action=search&field=/Record/ObjectNumber&label=N%C2%B0%20de%20gestion&value=71.1935.60.20","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"The Dogon iron blade","pool_id":"auto-mqb--mqb_71-1935-60-20","auto_assigned":true,"last_modified":"2026-10-19"},"slug":"okoye2020-001-igbo-of-igbo-ukwu-ajikwu-night-masquerade"}