{"id":"SCHEBESTA1948-001","label":"Kinombe's two initiation voices","people_or_site":"Basua (Bambuti) near Kinombe","country_current":"Democratic Republic of the Congo","historic_region":"Beni–Penge road, Ituri forest, Belgian Congo","macroregion":"Africa / Central Africa","local_name":"","source_term":"Schwirrholz","source_language":"German","object_description":"Not recorded.","function_summary":"One of only two noise instruments of the local Nkumbi initiation, sounded with the wooden trumpet Lusomba; no sounding pots were used.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"schebesta1948_kinombe_basua_schwirrholz","source_type":"primary_ethnography","source_url":"https://www.kaowarsom.be/documents/MEMOIRES_VERHANDELINGEN/Sciences_morales_politique/Hum.Sc.%28IRCB%29_T.II%2C2_SCHEBESTA%20P._Bambuti-pygm%C3%A4en%20vom%20Ituri_1948.pdf","page_or_plate":"1948 p. 483 (PDF p. 209); 1950 p. 75 (PDF p. 87)","map_confidence":"low","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Midpoint of the old Beni–Penge road (Beni 0.49, 29.47; Penge on the Ituri 1.34, 28.12); Kinombe itself not located on modern gazetteers.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Near Kinombe, on the old forest road from Beni to Penge, Basua boys were initiated to two sounds only: the bullroarer and a wooden trumpet. Neighbouring peoples brought out droning pots as well; the Bambuti here had none. The trumpet, Lusomba, led. Every clan owned its own, each with its own name — just as, the Basua explained, every animal is simply nyama, yet every kind of animal has a name of its own. They were forest hunters. An old man told how the heart of a fresh kill was laid in a hollow tree with the words “This is for Muema”: the god who lives in the forest and gave them everything.","pull_quote":"als Lärminstrumente der Initiation nur das Schwirrholz und die Holztrompete","pull_quote_translation":"as the noise instruments of initiation, only the bullroarer and the wooden trumpet","pull_quote_cite":"Paul Schebesta, Die Bambuti-Pygmäen vom Ituri II-2 (1948), p. 483","term_gloss":"Schwirrholz: German, 'whirring wood', the bullroarer; no local name recorded. Lusomba: the wooden initiation trumpet. Muema: the forest god of the Basua, called Mungu by the Babira.","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":"Paul Schebesta, Die Bambuti-Pygmäen vom Ituri, vol. II-2 (Brussels, 1948), p. 483","url":"https://www.kaowarsom.be/documents/MEMOIRES_VERHANDELINGEN/Sciences_morales_politique/Hum.Sc.%28IRCB%29_T.II%2C2_SCHEBESTA%20P._Bambuti-pygm%C3%A4en%20vom%20Ituri_1948.pdf"},{"citation":"Paul Schebesta, Die Bambuti-Pygmäen vom Ituri, vol. IV-1: Die Religion der Ituri-Bambuti (Brussels, 1950), p. 75"}],"source_citations":"Paul Schebesta, Die Bambuti-Pygmäen vom Ituri, vol. II-2 (Brussels, 1948), p. 483; Paul Schebesta, Die Bambuti-Pygmäen vom Ituri, vol. IV-1: Die Religion der Ituri-Bambuti (Brussels, 1950), p. 75","source_display":"Paul Schebesta, Die Bambuti-Pygmäen vom Ituri, vol. II-2 (Brussels, 1948), p. 483; Paul Schebesta, Die Bambuti-Pygmäen vom Ituri, vol. IV-1: Die Religion der Ituri-Bambuti (Brussels, 1950), p. 75","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Not recorded.","function_display":"One of only two noise instruments of the local Nkumbi initiation, sounded with the wooden trumpet Lusomba; no sounding pots were used.","confidence_display":"low","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"basua near","display_name":"Kinombe's two initiation voices","image":{"full":"assets/objects/MUS2026-239_spurlock_2013_05_0201ab.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/MUS2026-239_spurlock_2013_05_0201ab_thumb.jpg","credit":"Spurlock Museum, University of Illinois, accession 2013.05.0201A/B","license":"Spurlock Museum image use terms (educational reuse with credit)","source_page":"https://www.spurlock.illinois.edu/collections/search-collection/details.php?a=2013.05.0201A","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Spurlock Museum 2013.05.0201A/B, the cast-metal bullroarer pair with cords","pool_id":"auto-MUS2026-239_spurlock_2013_05_0201ab","auto_assigned":true,"last_modified":"2026-10-19"},"slug":"schebesta1948-001-basua-bambuti-near-kinombe"}