{"id":"SUBSAH-007","label":"Basa roarers of Ko and the war masks","people_or_site":"Basa / Basaa","country_current":"Cameroon","historic_region":"Southern Cameroon / Basaa Centre-Littoral region","macroregion":"Africa / Central Africa","local_name":"mbam um","source_term":"Bull roarer of wood with fibre thongs (mbam um)","source_language":"English","object_description":"Two Basa mbam um roarers at Harvard are carved wooden sticks with twisted fibre cords; Sarasin's 1915 Mawn inventory from Sakbayeme lists a small corded bullroarer.","function_summary":"One Basa blade served medicine men at mask dances before war to confuse opponents; another belonged to the women’s Ko association. The separate mbam um specimens have no described use.","attestation_type":"museum_specimen","source_key":"peabody_121960_121961_basa_mbam_um","source_type":"museum_object","source_url":"https://collections.peabody.harvard.edu/objects/details/121960","page_or_plate":"Peabody objects/details/121960, object number 35-31-50/1176; sibling objects/details/121961, object number 35-31-50/1177; accession 35-31 = George W. Schwab Cameroon collection, 1934-1935.; Sarasin 1915, pp. 250-251 (source p. 251)","map_confidence":"low_medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Broad Basa/Basaa southern Cameroon anchor near Edea/Sanaga-Maritime from the public Basaa geography trail and Nominatim/OSM city coordinate; Peabody gives southern Cameroon, not a village or collection locality.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Ko was a women’s association whose leader served as midwife. Its medicines treated women’s illnesses and sought the blessing of children; men’s abdominal ailments were treated too. Its greatest sacred thing was the inside of a termite mound, a sign of fertility. A small, 22-centimetre blade belonged to Ko. Another Basa roarer was used by medicine men at mask dances before war, to confuse the enemy. At Harvard, two more Basa roarers from George Schwab's collection keep only their name, mbam um.","pull_quote":"","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"","term_gloss":"mbam um: the Basa (Basaa) name for these bullroarers. Um is a Basa institution associated with judicial authority and funerary rites — a confraternity within the Mbog complex.","cls":"sacred","class_label":"Sacred / spirit","color":"#8A5A2B","is_candidate":false,"flags":["women_special","female_priority_myth"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":true,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Fritz Sarasin, 'Bericht über die Sammlung für Völkerkunde des Basler Museums für das Jahr 1914', Verhandlungen der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Basel 26 (1915), pp. 250–251","url":"https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/Verh-natforsch-Ges-Basel_26_1915_0246-0284.pdf#page=6","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20240811153821/https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/Verh-natforsch-Ges-Basel_26_1915_0246-0284.pdf#page=6"},{"citation":"Museum der Kulturen Basel","url":""},{"citation":"Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard, 35-31-50/1176 (George W. Schwab collection, 1934–1935)","url":"https://collections.peabody.harvard.edu/objects/details/121960"}],"source_citations":"Fritz Sarasin, 'Bericht über die Sammlung für Völkerkunde des Basler Museums für das Jahr 1914', Verhandlungen der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Basel 26 (1915), pp. 250–251; Museum der Kulturen Basel; Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard, 35-31-50/1176 (George W. Schwab collection, 1934–1935)","source_display":"Fritz Sarasin, 'Bericht über die Sammlung für Völkerkunde des Basler Museums für das Jahr 1914', Verhandlungen der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Basel 26 (1915), pp. 250–251; Museum der Kulturen Basel; Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard, 35-31-50/1176 (George W. Schwab collection, 1934–1935)","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Two Basa mbam um roarers at Harvard are carved wooden sticks with twisted fibre cords; Sarasin's 1915 Mawn inventory from Sakbayeme lists a small corded bullroarer.","function_display":"One Basa blade served medicine men at mask dances before war to confuse opponents; another belonged to the women’s Ko association. The separate mbam um specimens have no described use.","confidence_display":"low to medium","attestation_label":"museum specimen","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"basa","display_name":"Basa roarers of Ko and the war masks","image":{"full":"assets/objects/MUS2026-182_wmw_91302_bulu_zauberholz.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/MUS2026-182_wmw_91302_bulu_zauberholz_thumb.jpg","alt":"Incised Bulu Zauberholz from Sangmelima, with a rounded head bearing geometric patterns and a short cord.","credit":"© KHM-Museumsverband (Weltmuseum Wien), inv. 91302","license":"CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (KHM-Museumsverband / Weltmuseum Wien) — ©KHM-Museumsverband credit required; rehosted low-res","source_page":"https://www.weltmuseumwien.at/en/objects/schwirrholz-786199-1","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"An incised Bulu blade from Sangmelima, Cameroon.","pool_id":"auto-MUS2026-182_wmw_91302_bulu_zauberholz","additional":[{"full":"assets/objects/SUBSAH-007_mkb_iii_26084_bassa_isango.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/SUBSAH-007_mkb_iii_26084_bassa_isango_thumb.jpg","credit":"Museum der Kulturen Basel, III 26084","license":"CC BY 4.0","source_page":"https://onlinecollection.mkb.ch/","rehosted":true,"caption":"Catalog card for a 22 cm Basa bullroarer of the women’s Isango Ko association."}]},"slug":"subsah-007-basa-basaa"}