{"id":"SALOKOSKI2006-001","label":"Ombalantu boys take the Big Birds’ voice","people_or_site":"Ombalantu / Owambo","country_current":"Namibia","historic_region":"Owamboland / Ombalantu (Uukwambalantu), Omusati Region","macroregion":"Africa / Southern Africa","local_name":"","source_term":"bull-roarers; Big Birds (omazila / omadhila)","source_language":"English","object_description":"Bullroarers sounded as the voice of the Big Birds at boys’ circumcision; no Ombalantu specimen, size or material described.","function_summary":"Elders produced the Big Birds’ sound before, during and after the cutting at boys’ circumcision; at a later stage of the initiation the boys took over the bullroarers and played them themselves.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"salokoski_kings","source_type":"secondary_literature","source_url":"https://the-eis.com/elibrary/sites/default/files/downloads/literature/How%20Kings%20are%20made_How%20Kingship%20changes.pdf","page_or_plate":"Salokoski 2006 pp. 253, 255 and n. 82","map_confidence":"low_medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Outapi, traditional centre of the Ombalantu polity; source names the kingdom, not a ritual site","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"In Ombalantu, as elsewhere in Owamboland, the noise heard at a boy’s circumcision was the voice of the Big Birds, the dangerous spirits of the rite. To be “eaten” by them was to be possessed. Elders made that voice before, during and after the cutting. Then the roles turned: at a later stage of the initiation the boys themselves took over the bullroarers and played them. When they had healed, they left the initiation camp and travelled across the country, no longer the Birds’ prey but men who held their voice.","pull_quote":"In Ombalantu and Uukolonkadhi the boys took over the bull-roarers and played them at a later stage of the initiation process.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Salokoski 2006, p. 255","term_gloss":"omazila / omadhila (sing. eedhila, eethila): the Big Birds, called the “spirits” or “Gods” of circumcision in Owambo narratives; their sound came from the whirled bullroarer.","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":"Märit Salokoski, How Kings Are Made – How Kingship Changes (University of Helsinki, 2006), pp. 253, 255","url":"https://helda.helsinki.fi/handle/10138/23512","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260216103545/https://helda.helsinki.fi/handle/10138/23512"}],"source_citations":"Märit Salokoski, How Kings Are Made – How Kingship Changes (University of Helsinki, 2006), pp. 253, 255","source_display":"Märit Salokoski, How Kings Are Made – How Kingship Changes (University of Helsinki, 2006), pp. 253, 255","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Bullroarers sounded as the voice of the Big Birds at boys’ circumcision; no Ombalantu specimen, size or material described.","function_display":"","confidence_display":"low to medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"ombalantu","display_name":"Ombalantu boys take the Big Birds’ voice","image":{"full":"assets/objects/MEN2007-001_men2007-001-ngangela-kasolo-kahulihuli-x.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/MEN2007-001_men2007-001-ngangela-kasolo-kahulihuli-x_thumb.jpg","alt":"Drawing of the Ngangela kasolo and kahulihuli from Angola: a broad rectangular instrument with an inset narrow strip and loose cord above a narrower end-pierced blade with cord.","credit":"Musée d’ethnographie de Neuchâtel, III.C.5524 and III.C.5525; Théodore Delachaux drawing, Retour d’Angola, Texpo 12bis, p. 20","license":"Rights reserved (© MEN 2007–12); rehosted for non-commercial research. Historical drawing reproduced in the museum catalogue; no open reuse licence stated.","source_page":"https://www.men.ch/fileadmin/sites/men/files/Documents/texpos/MEN2007_Retour_d_Angola_Texpo12bis.pdf#page=22","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Ngangela kasolo and kahulihuli, Angola, 1933","pool_id":"auto-MEN2007-001_men2007-001-ngangela-kasolo-kahulihuli-x","auto_assigned":true,"last_modified":"2026-10-19"},"slug":"salokoski2006-001-ombalantu-owambo"}