The Bullroarer Atlas

No. BLENCHDICT-003

Nupe kèrè in traditional worship

Nigeria · Niger State · Nupe country · Africa

Sacred / spirit

Kambari bull-roarer from Nigeria: a long, narrow wooden blade with a thickened end and tangled fibre cord.
Plate I. Representative — not this record’s object. Kambari bullroarer with its fibre cord, from the neighbouring Niger basin. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · Image source

kèrè

Source term: Bullroarer

bullroarer used in traditional worship

Nupe country lies along the Niger above its meeting with the Kaduna, with Bida at its centre — a town long famous for its brass-smiths, glass-bead makers and river traders, and Muslim for generations. Kèrè belongs to something older: it is the bullroarer of Nupe traditional worship, and its business was worship, not play.

kèrè n. mi Bullroarer used in traditional worship.

Roger Blench, A Dictionary of Nupe, printed p. 96.

Particulars

Object
A bullroarer called kèrè among Nupe speakers of the Niger–Kaduna confluence in central Nigeria; construction, material and dimensions are not described.
Function
Used in traditional worship.

Source

Roger Blench, A Dictionary of Nupe

View the source · archived

Part of The Bullroarer Atlas, companion to The Eve Theory of Consciousness.