Sakalava

kitambovo (Beroroha); tambovo (Sakaraha)

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. 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

Particulars

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. By 1938 it had passed out of the world of magic.