DESCHAMPS1962-001 - primary ethnography
Kwele / Bakwele
Gabon - Makokou - Haut-Ivindo - Central Africa
Restricted
namiqwott French
Source term: bull-roarer; planchette tournant autour d'une corde
namiqwott = Kwele name recorded by Deschamps; no gloss given.
At Kwele funeral dances in the forests of the Haut-Ivindo, a small board whirled on a cord — the namiqwott — was the spirit of the dead, and women and children were forbidden to see it. The Kwele, whose white-faced, heart-shaped ekuk masks are among the celebrated images of African art, gave the historian Hubert Deschamps the instrument at Makokou in a single line: a spinning plank that was the voice of the revenants.
Le namiqwott était un « bull-roarer » (planchette tournant autour d'une corde) employé pour les danses de funérailles, que les femmes et les enfants ne devaient pas voir. C'était l'esprit des revenants.
The namiqwott was a bullroarer — a small board turning around a cord — used for funeral dances, which women and children were not to see. It was the spirit of the dead.
Hubert Deschamps, Traditions orales et archives au Gabon (1962), p. 78.
- Object
- Board turning around a cord; source gives no material, dimensions, or named object.
- Function
- Funeral-dance voice of the dead, not to be seen by women or children.
- Map confidence
- high - Makokou informant/locality anchor; source does not locate a particular funeral.
- Source location
- p. 78
- Spirit voice
- Death and rebirth
- Forbidden to women