EXH2026-003 - secondary catalog
Sakalava
SW Madagascar, districts of Beroroha and Sakaraha - Africa
Play / practical
kitambovo (Beroroha); tambovo (Sakaraha) French
Source term: bullroarer / kitambovo / tambovo
kitambovo (district of Beroroha) and tambovo (district of Sakaraha): the Sakalava names for the bullroarer, a blade of bamboo, dry bark, calabash, or hazomalany (camphorwood) swung on a cord.
By the time Curt Sachs compiled his survey of Malagasy instruments in 1938, the bullroarer had nearly vanished from the island and slipped out of adult hands altogether, surviving as a child's plaything or a scarecrow set to frighten birds away from sown seed. He calls it "removed from its domain, the world of magic," and extremely rare on Madagascar. Among the Sakalava the blade was cut from bamboo, dry bark, a piece of calabash, or hazomalany, the camphorwood; the district reports gave its name as kitambovo around Beroroha and tambovo around Sakaraha. The Tanala instrument Sachs recorded was a flat strip of bamboo pointed at both ends, about thirteen centimeters long and two wide, its cord fixed to a stick.
Removed from its domain, the world of magic, it seems to be extremely rare on Madagascar and is no longer found in the hands of adults. It has become a simple children's toy or, at best, a scarecrow for birds menacing the seeds.
Curt Sachs, The Musical Instruments of Madagascar [1938], trans. in Translingual Discourse in Ethnomusicology 6 (2020), p. 62
- Object
- Blades of bamboo, dry bark, calabash pieces or hazomalany (camphor) wood, swung on a cord.
- Function
- Children's toy; bird-scarer protecting sown seed. 'Removed from the world of magic' by the time recorded (Sachs).
- Map confidence
- medium - midpoint of Beroroha (-21.67,45.16) and Sakaraha (-22.91,44.53) districts
- Source location
- p. 62
- Toy / secular survival