The Bullroarer Atlas

AFR-001 - ethnographic attestation

Uukwaluudhi / Owambo

Namibia - Owamboland - Omusati region - Africa

Restricted

A plain wooden blade, its narrow end cut into a stepped tang pierced by a small rectangular hole, the other end tapering to a rounded point — a...
Representative image. A plain wooden blade, its narrow end cut into a stepped tang pierced by a small rectangular hole, the other end tapering to a rounded point — a generic bull-roarer, not the Big Birds instruments whirled by the Uukwaluudhi in the omathila rain rite; no photograph of those has surfaced. © The Trustees of the British Museum (E/Af1999-01-40) CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Image source

omathila / Big Birds English

Source term: omathila; bullroarer-like whirled instrument

omathila: "the Big Birds," the Uukwaluudhi rain and sowing spirits whose whirring voice the instrument produced (related forms omazila/omadhila, singular eedhila/eethila).

Etymology. omathila translates as "the Big Birds," understood to be spirits; the whirled blade's sharp whirring represented the noise of the wings of huge flying birds, to whom stock was sacrificed. Related forms: omazila/omadhila, singular eedhila/eethila. (high confidence)

Among the Uukwaluudhi of Owamboland, a rain and sowing rite was carried out in the name of the omathila, the Big Birds: spirits thought to fly over the country making frightening noises, whose voice was a flat piece of wood, roughly six inches by two, fixed to the end of a whip-like lash. Four or five old men, the ekanjo, "men who call the clouds for rain," were appointed by the king to keep the custom alive; he summoned them to his kraal and set them to make the preparations, and they moved over the land in a secret procession after dark. At first light they marched east to greet the rising sun and passed among the kraals whirling the instruments above their heads to imitate the beating wings of huge flying birds. No one might address them or even look upon them, for to do so would bring misfortune on the offender and his crops. The ceremony ran four days; small stock met along the way was driven off and by custom became the property of the ekanjo, and on the last day the stock was sacrificed to the omathila. The first procession fell in September or October, the time of the Small Rains and of sowing, and was greatly feared; a second, more relaxed one came when the crops were well established and the Big Rains were expected. By then the men carried long sticks tipped with ostrich feathers, and people in the fields greeted them with cries of "Rain, rain," then drove their hoes harder into the ground as if the rain had already fallen.

No one is allowed to address them or even to set eyes upon them as this will bring bad luck to such persons and their crops.

C. H. Hahn 1928:4, quoted in Salokoski 2006:230
Object
Rain/sowing Big Birds rite with whirled bullroarer-like instruments representing huge flying birds.
Function
Uukwaluudhi omathila rain ritual was related to sowing and initiated by the king; two processions are keyed to the Small Rains/sowing and to crops already established.
Map confidence
medium - representative coordinate for named people/region; source does not warrant a ritual-site point
Source location
Salokoski 2006 pp. 229-231; Hahn 1928 p. 4 via Harding 1973 pp. 41-42

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