CREM1976-001 - ethnographic attestation
Aka eagle-flight monkey scarer
Central African Republic - Lobaye Prefecture - Africa
Play / practical
Source term: rhombe à singe
monkey bullroarer
Aka families live by net-hunting, honey and gathering in the rainforest of the Lobaye, in the southwest of the Central African Republic, and are known far beyond it for the dense interlocking polyphony of their singing. Away from that repertoire sits a working sound. In Engedi camp, near Kenga village, on 1 November 1976, Serge Bahuchet recorded a monkey whip, tòmbó, and a monkey bullroarer used together — not to call spirits, but to counterfeit the flight of an eagle overhead and frighten the monkey, kémà.
Fouet à singe (tòmbó) et rhombe à singe (utilisés pour imiter le vol de l'aigle et pour faire peur au singe) ; singe (kémà).
Monkey whip (tòmbó) and monkey bullroarer (used to imitate the eagle's flight and frighten the monkey); monkey (kémà).
CREM-CNRS item CNRSMH_I_2020_084_009_02, collected by Serge Bahuchet, recorded 1 November 1976.
- Object
- A bullroarer recorded in performance alongside a monkey whip in the Lobaye forest at Engedi camp, near Kenga, Central African Republic; the instrument's own form and vernacular name are not recorded.
- Function
- Whirled with a monkey whip to imitate an eagle's flight and frighten a monkey.
- Source
- CREM-CNRS item CNRSMH_I_2020_084_009_02, Fouet et rhombe à singe; collector Serge Bahuchet; recorded 1 November 1976
- Source location
- Catalog item and embedded audio player
- Source confidence
- medium Moboma commune regional anchor for catalogued Kenga village/Engedi camp; camp not independently geocoded