{"id":"SCHEBESTA1933-001","label":"Bakango / Bafwaguda maduali bullroarer","people_or_site":"Bakango (Bafwaguda clan / Mbuti)","country_current":"Democratic Republic of the Congo","historic_region":"Asunguda-Apare river district / Ituri Forest near Avakubi","macroregion":"Africa / Central Africa","local_name":"maduali","source_term":"Schwirrholz","source_language":"German","object_description":"A bullroarer, swung by the masked ndiki; Schebesta never saw one.","function_summary":"First secret revealed in boys' Mambela initiation; masked leader embodied the primordial ancestor endekoru. Among Babali and Bakango, maduali named both the bullroarer and the primordial father, and its hum was said to be one with thunder.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"schebesta1933_bakango_maduali","source_type":"primary_ethnography","source_url":"https://dlibra.bibliotekaelblaska.pl/Content/56646/PDF/010284-1933.pdf","page_or_plate":"printed pp. 115-116; PDF pp. 123-124","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"Avakubi regional anchor for the named Asunguda-Apare field district; not the exact camp or performance site.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"A masked ndiki, dressed in grass and embodying the primordial ancestor endekoru, swung the maduali while frightened novices watched from a distance — the first secret shown to Bakango boys after nearly a year secluded in the forest, where women could not follow. The word carried a whole cosmology: among the Babali and Bakango, maduali meant both the bullroarer and the primordial father, and its drone was said to be one with thunder — the same thunder Schebesta watched silence entire Bakango camps, everyone lying still around the fires until the storm passed. The larger rite belonged to a serpent: boys who had passed Mambela without ever seeing a python were marched in procession to view one killed nearby, whipped with rods along the way — Schebesta saw it happen on the Apare — for the python is the symbol of ambelema, the rainbow serpent somehow behind the initiation itself. The instrument he never saw: the Bakango said the objects had vanished with the last ndiki to die.","pull_quote":"Er schwingt das Schwirrholz und warnt alle, ihm nahe zu kommen.","pull_quote_translation":"He swings the bullroarer and warns everyone against coming near him.","pull_quote_cite":"Schebesta 1933:116","term_gloss":"maduali: names both the bullroarer and the primordial father (Urvater) among the Babali and Bakango.","cls":"restricted","class_label":"Restricted","color":"#A43C2F","is_candidate":false,"flags":["spirit_voice","snake","initiation","women_taboo"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":true,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":true,"sources":[{"citation":"Paul Schebesta, Religiöse Ideen und Kulte der Ituri-Pygmäen (Belgisch-Kongo), Archiv für Religionswissenschaft 30 (1933), pp. 115-116; Paul Schebesta, Die Bambuti-Pygmäen vom Ituri, vol. IV-1: Die Religion der Ituri-Bambuti (Brussels: Institut Royal Colonial Belge, 1950), pp. 15, 20-21","url":"https://dlibra.bibliotekaelblaska.pl/Content/56646/PDF/010284-1933.pdf","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20251027173130/https://dlibra.bibliotekaelblaska.pl/Content/56646/PDF/010284-1933.pdf#page=143"}],"source_citations":"Paul Schebesta, Religiöse Ideen und Kulte der Ituri-Pygmäen (Belgisch-Kongo), Archiv für Religionswissenschaft 30 (1933), pp. 115-116; Paul Schebesta, Die Bambuti-Pygmäen vom Ituri, vol. IV-1: Die Religion der Ituri-Bambuti (Brussels: Institut Royal Colonial Belge, 1950), pp. 15, 20-21","source_display":"Paul Schebesta, Religiöse Ideen und Kulte der Ituri-Pygmäen (Belgisch-Kongo), Archiv für Religionswissenschaft 30 (1933), pp. 115-116; Paul Schebesta, Die Bambuti-Pygmäen vom Ituri, vol. IV-1: Die Religion der Ituri-Bambuti (Brussels: Institut Royal Colonial Belge, 1950), pp. 15, 20-21","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A bullroarer, swung by the masked ndiki; Schebesta never saw one.","function_display":"","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"bakango bafwaguda","display_name":"Bakango / Bafwaguda maduali bullroarer","image":{"full":"assets/objects/SCHEBESTA1933-003_schebesta1933-003-rmca-8494.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/SCHEBESTA1933-003_schebesta1933-003-rmca-8494_thumb.jpg","alt":"A pale, leaf-shaped Kereboro blade with repeated dark transverse bands and a cord loop through its narrow end.","credit":"Collection RMCA / AfricaMuseum, Tervuren, MO.0.0.8494","license":"Rights reserved (© RMCA/AfricaMuseum); rehost proposed for non-commercial research. Museum export explicitly requires contacting repro@africamuseum.be for all permissions; authorization required.","source_page":"https://mimo-international.com/MIMO/doc/IFD/OAI_RMCA_BE_TEN00_MO.0.0.8494/rhombe","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"A Kereboro bullroarer from the Uele, its blade banded with burnt stripes.","pool_id":"auto-SCHEBESTA1933-003_schebesta1933-003-rmca-8494"},"slug":"schebesta1933-001-bakango-bafwaguda-clan-mbuti"}