The Bullroarer Atlas

BLENCHDICT-002 - lexical attestation

Kana children's forbidden égùgù

Nigeria - Rivers State - Ogoni - Africa

Restricted

Ejagham bullroarer with its cord, from the Oban district of southeastern Nigeria.
Representative — not this record’s object. · Ejagham bullroarer with its cord, from the Oban district of southeastern Nigeria. Image source

égùgù

Source term: bullroarer

bullroarer; forbidden children’s imitation of adult secret-society instrument

Among the Ogoni of the Niger Delta, east of Port Harcourt, the men's secret leopard society kuè tɛ̀m̀ keeps a bullroarer of its own. Kana children keep another. Towards the end of the year they take up the égùgù, an imitation of the society's instrument, and sound it — a thing they are not, strictly, permitted to do. The dictionary records the offence and the season in one breath, and leaves the rest where the society keeps it: how the adult instrument is made, and what it says.

égùgù n. bullroarer. Imitation of the bullroarer used by the adult secret leopard society, kuè tɛ̀m̀, played by children towards the end of the year, although technically forbidden.

Roger Blench, A Dictionary of Kana, printed p. 15.
Object
A children's bullroarer called égùgù among Kana (Ogoni) speakers of Rivers State, Nigeria, made in imitation of the instrument of the adult secret leopard society kuè tɛ̀m̀; material and form are not recorded.
Function
Sounded by children towards the end of the year in imitation of the adult secret leopard society's bullroarer, although technically forbidden.
Source
Roger Blench, A Dictionary of Kana
Source location
Printed p. 15
Source confidence
medium Bori/Kana-Ogoni language-area anchor; not an object findspot

View source Open this point on the interactive map