The Bullroarer Atlas

DENNETT1910-001 - ethnographic attestation

Bini Oloawon Ovia / Ovato bullroarer

Nigeria - Benin Kingdom - later Edo State - West Africa

Restricted

Bullroarer at Iyowa, photographed by N. W. Thomas in 1909–10.
Bullroarer at Iyowa, photographed by N. W. Thomas in 1909–10. · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 Image source
Yoruba whirling rig collected in Nigeria around 1900.
Representative — not this record’s object. · Yoruba whirling rig collected in Nigeria around 1900. · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Image source

Oloawon Ovia / Oloawon Ovato / Usaokwhaiyi / Elimidu / ɛmil-ovia English

Source term: Oloawon Ovia / Oloawon Ovato / Usaokwhaiyi / Elimidu

Oloawon Ovia / Oloawon Ovato / Usaokwhaiyi: Bini names for Oro forms recorded by Dennett; he glosses Oloawon as owner of the turtle or tortoise. ɛmil-ovia: Melzian's Bini dictionary entry, literally "the cow (ɛmila) of Ovia" - the practice of twirling the bull roarer at the Ovia society.

At the Oba of Benin's new-yam meal, the Elimidu voice rose and women shut themselves indoors. The same bullroarer entered Ovia's annual festival and men's initiation, sounding a boundary between the public town and male ritual knowledge.

the bull roarer is certainly used at Ovia’s yearly festival in Benin territory.

R. E. Dennett, Nigerian Studies (1910), p. 39.
Object
No Bini-specific morphology recorded; Dennett explicitly identifies the instrument as a bullroarer.
Function
Ovia annual festival and related Oro events; male initiation; deterrent to women and other outsiders.
Map confidence
medium - Representative Bini core / Benin City anchor; the source names Benin territory, Geduma, and Ugo but no performance site.
Source location
p. 39

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