Gwana Jukun Dodo bullroarer voice and rain cult

Dodo

Source term: bullroarer

Dodo: the tutelary genius or guardian spirit of a village or tribe — chiefly the spirit of its dead founder — impersonated in mask and costume; also the name for the sound made on its behalf by tube-and-web or bullroarer.

Etymology. The Dodo is the tutelary genius or guardian spirit of a village or tribe, the embodiment of the spirits of the dead and chiefly of the spirit of the tribe's dead founder, on whose behalf the cry is made through a spider's-web tube or bullroarer; among the Gwana Jukun this same Dodo is brought forth to control rain at sowing and harvest.

Across the tribes of central Nigeria the Dodo was the impersonation of the dead — the tutelary genius of a village or tribe, principally the spirit of its dead founder, who appeared at circumcision to initiate the boys into the tribal mysteries. The uninitiated believed the Dodo himself performed the cutting, and if a boy died during the rites his mother was told that the Dodo had swallowed him. Among the Kagoma, who had taken up the cult only recently and ran it as a secret society of married men, the Dodo's cry was produced by blowing through a tube tipped with spider's web; the bullroarer served the same end. Novices were soundly flogged so their shrieks would strike terror into the women and children, and Meek records that those tribes who kept the cult frankly admitted the intimidation of women was a main object of the rites. The same Dodo institution governed the rain. Among the Gwana Jukun the genii were brought forth and tested in order of seniority — in one community the senior Dodo, Adung, controlled the weather twice a year, at sowing and at harvest — and the priest, the Sarkin Tsafi, offered sacrifice, made his petition for rain, and then squirted a shower of water from his mouth.

Each youth is then asked if he has seen the Dodo, and, before he can reply, a member of the cult blows on the tube and says, “I myself am the Dodo.” Then, handing the young man the tube, he says, “And henceforth you yourself are the Dodo too.”

Meek 1925, The Northern Tribes of Nigeria, vol. II:21

Particulars

Object

The bullroarer is used as a voice of the Dodo; the same Dodo institution controls rain at sowing and harvest.

Function

Sounded for the cry of the Dodo in initiation; Gwana Jukun rain ceremonies bring out Dodos to control weather twice yearly at sowing and harvest-time.