{"id":"SUBSAH-030","label":"Yalemba-Ligasa Upper Congo bullroarers","people_or_site":"Yalemba-Ligasa area, Upper Congo (?Topoke / ?Olombo / ?Lokele)","country_current":"Democratic Republic of the Congo","historic_region":"Tshopo Province / Yalemba-Ligasa area","macroregion":"Africa / Central Africa","local_name":"","source_term":"Bullroarer","source_language":"English","object_description":"Two plain wooden bullroarers, long and narrow with rounded ends: the longer, 54 cm, notched at one end and still carrying its string; the shorter, 39 cm, also strung.","function_summary":"Function not recorded.","attestation_type":"museum_specimen","source_key":"MAA_1979_615_616","source_type":"museum_collection","source_url":"https://collections.maa.cam.ac.uk/objects/526878/","page_or_plate":"MAA 1979.615-616","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Representative Yalemba-Ligasa / Tshopo Province anchor; not an exact object findspot.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"To make boys into men, the Lokele and their forest neighbours on the Upper Congo turned their elders into spirits: faces daubed white, brandishing knives and scimitars, the men burst from the sacred grove to terrify women and children and carry off the chosen. A survivor of this libeli rite won a single word — LILWA — that no woman could utter without a heavy fine. These two plain slats of whirled wood, collected here by the missionary A.R.D. Simpson among the Lokele's forest neighbours, the Olombo and Topoke, come from that world; a bullroarer's howl is the classic voice such spirits are given.","pull_quote":"Bullroarer made from plain wood. Long and narrow in shape, both ends have been rounded, one with a carved notch and a piece of string attached.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, object record 1979.615","term_gloss":"","cls":"unknown","class_label":"Function not recorded","color":"#6B7884","is_candidate":false,"flags":[],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Cambridge MAA 1979.615 and 1979.616, bullroarers from Africa; Central Africa; Democratic Republic of the Congo; Tshopo Province; Yalemba-Ligasa area; Field collection of Rev. A.R.D. Simpson from the Upper Congo River, 1923-1954; probably mostly Olombo and Topoke, possibly some Lokele","url":"https://collections.maa.cam.ac.uk/objects/526878/","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261013133042/https://collections.maa.cam.ac.uk/objects/526878/"}],"source_citations":"Cambridge MAA 1979.615 and 1979.616, bullroarers from Africa; Central Africa; Democratic Republic of the Congo; Tshopo Province; Yalemba-Ligasa area; Field collection of Rev. A.R.D. Simpson from the Upper Congo River, 1923-1954; probably mostly Olombo and Topoke, possibly some Lokele","source_display":"Cambridge MAA 1979.615 and 1979.616, bullroarers from Africa; Central Africa; Democratic Republic of the Congo; Tshopo Province; Yalemba-Ligasa area; Field collection of Rev. A.R.D. Simpson from the Upper Congo River, 1923-1954; probably mostly Olombo and Topoke, possibly some Lokele","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Two plain wooden bullroarers, long and narrow with rounded ends: the longer, 54 cm, notched at one end and still carrying its string; the shorter, 39 cm, also strung.","function_display":"Function not recorded.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"museum specimen","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"yalemba ligasa","display_name":"Yalemba-Ligasa Upper Congo bullroarers","image":{"full":"assets/objects/museum_harvest/maa_1979-615.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/museum_harvest/thumbs/maa_1979-615_thumb.jpg","alt":"The 54 cm wooden roarer from Yalemba, upper Congo, with a long narrow plain blade and a cord still attached at one end.","credit":"Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge (1979.615)","license":"CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (Cambridge MAA)","source_page":"https://collections.maa.cam.ac.uk/objects/526878/","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"The longer of the pair, 54 cm, with its string still attached."},"slug":"subsah-030-yalemba-ligasa-area-upper-congo-topoke-olombo-lokele"}