The Bullroarer Atlas

AFR-003 - ethnographic attestation

Gwana Jukun and neighboring Dodo-cult communities

Central Nigeria - Gwana Jukun area - Africa

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A Zumper Dodo masker photographed from behind in Muri Province, his woven cap and long raffia skirt trailing to the ground. The Dodo is the...
A Zumper Dodo masker photographed from behind in Muri Province, his woven cap and long raffia skirt trailing to the ground. The Dodo is the masked spirit whose voice the bull-roarer makes; the instrument itself goes unphotographed here, and the Zumper are neighbors of the Gwana Jukun described on this page. C. K. Meek, The Northern Tribes of Nigeria (1925), vol. II, fig. 94 Public domain Image source

Dodo English

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. Meek gives no literal word-derivation or word-for-word translation of 'Dodo', but explicitly and repeatedly defines its referent: 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. (medium confidence)

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.

The cry of the Dodo is made by blowing through a tube, over the end of which is fixed a piece of spider's web. The bullroarer is also used for this purpose. The novices are soundly flogged, and their shrieks strike terror into the women and children of the village.

Meek 1925, The Northern Tribes of Nigeria, vol. II:21
Object
The bullroarer is used as a voice of the Dodo; the same Dodo institution controls rain at sowing and harvest.
Function
Meek describes the bullroarer as used for the cry of the Dodo in initiation, while Gwana Jukun rain ceremonies bring out Dodos to control weather twice yearly at sowing and harvest-time.
Map confidence
medium - representative coordinate for named people/region; source does not warrant a ritual-site point
Source location
Meek 1925 vol. II pp. 20-21, 66-67

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