{"id":"SCHUMACHER1950-001","label":"Batwa urübügübugu, bamboo for play","people_or_site":"Eastern Batwa (Twa), Rwandan Kivu highlands","country_current":"Rwanda","historic_region":"Highlands east of Lake Kivu (Kanage, Bushiru, Birunga margins); Schumacher's Eastern Batwa survey","macroregion":"Africa / East Africa","local_name":"urübügübugu","source_term":"Schwirrholz","source_language":"German","object_description":"A piece of split bamboo on a cord.","function_summary":"A children's toy; Schumacher states that it was known but not used in any ritual act.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"schumacher1950_kivu_batwa_urubugubugu","source_type":"primary_ethnography","source_url":"https://www.kaowarsom.be/documents/MEMOIRES_VERHANDELINGEN/Sciences_morales_politique/Hum.Sc.%28IRCB%29_T.V%2CSCHUMACHER%20P._Die%20Kivu-pygm%C3%A4en_1950.pdf","page_or_plate":"p. 317 (PDF p. 329)","map_confidence":"low_medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Representative point for Schumacher's Eastern Batwa on the Rwandan side of Lake Kivu (Kanage/Gishwati–Bushiru highlands); no performance village is named.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"A split of bamboo on a cord was all it took. Eastern Batwa children in the hills east of Lake Kivu whirled the urübügübugu for their own amusement; their elders knew it well and never brought it into a rite. Batwa worship lived elsewhere, in the ’ndaro: little domes of branches about a metre high where the ancestors received beer, meat and millet porridge. Nobody fenced them off. Children romped there and hens wandered in and out, so long as no one wrecked a shrine. The head of the family, building one, would say: “See, here is a house, grandfather — be content.”","pull_quote":"Es besteht aus einem Bambusscheit und einer Schnur und dient den Kindern als Spielzeug.","pull_quote_translation":"It consists of a split of bamboo and a cord, and serves the children as a toy.","pull_quote_cite":"Peter Schumacher, Die Kivu-Pygmäen (1950), p. 317","term_gloss":"urübügübugu: the Eastern Batwa name for the bullroarer, in Schumacher's spelling; no meaning is given. ’ndaro: the small branch huts in which the ancestors (bazimu) receive offerings.","cls":"play_practical","class_label":"Play / practical","color":"#24766D","is_candidate":false,"flags":["toy_survival"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Peter Schumacher, Die Kivu-Pygmäen (Twiden), Expedition zu den zentralafrikanischen Kivu-Pygmäen II (Brussels: Institut Royal Colonial Belge, 1950), p. 317","url":"https://www.kaowarsom.be/documents/MEMOIRES_VERHANDELINGEN/Sciences_morales_politique/Hum.Sc.%28IRCB%29_T.V%2CSCHUMACHER%20P._Die%20Kivu-pygm%C3%A4en_1950.pdf"}],"source_citations":"Peter Schumacher, Die Kivu-Pygmäen (Twiden), Expedition zu den zentralafrikanischen Kivu-Pygmäen II (Brussels: Institut Royal Colonial Belge, 1950), p. 317","source_display":"Peter Schumacher, Die Kivu-Pygmäen (Twiden), Expedition zu den zentralafrikanischen Kivu-Pygmäen II (Brussels: Institut Royal Colonial Belge, 1950), p. 317","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A piece of split bamboo on a cord.","function_display":"A children's toy; Schumacher states that it was known but not used in any ritual act.","confidence_display":"low to medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"eastern batwa","display_name":"Batwa urübügübugu, bamboo for play","image":{"full":"assets/objects/HOBLEY1922-001_hunterian_e1936_10_front.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/HOBLEY1922-001_hunterian_e1936_10_front_thumb.jpg","alt":"Marion Stevenson’s Kikuyu kiburuti: a small flat wooden blade hangs from a long pole rig, shown beside a scale bar.","credit":"The Hunterian, University of Glasgow (GLAHM:E.1936.10), via IIIF","license":"© The Hunterian, University of Glasgow; no published reuse terms — displayed with credit, source linked","source_page":"https://www.gla.ac.uk/collections/#/details?irn=102180&catType=C","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Marion Stevenson's Kikuyu kiburuti on its pole rig, 1907–1929","pool_id":"auto-HOBLEY1922-001_hunterian_e1936_10_front","auto_assigned":true,"last_modified":"2026-10-19"},"slug":"schumacher1950-001-eastern-batwa-twa-rwandan-kivu-highlands"}