EXH2026-014 - secondary catalog
Babali (Bali), Ituri
Democratic Republic of the Congo - NE Congo (Babali initiation belt) - Central Africa
Restricted
Source term: Maduali
Blindfolded Mombela novices lay on their backs while three elders divided the ordeal: Isumu cut the tattoo marks, Nasasa sounded a flute like the grey ibis, and Maduali swung the bullroarer's mournful siren overhead, a voice that rolled through Babali country for some three kilometres. This was the same forest world that bred the dreaded anioto, the leopard-men who killed disguised in claws and hide. Farther south the roarer had dwindled to a child's toy — still feared, since a slipped blade could fly into a bystander's face.
le rhombe est lié au complexe d'initiation tribale qui «se rencontre avec quelques variantes chez les voisins des Babali: Bakumu, Babira, Wanyanza, Bangelima, Barundi, Bapopoi, Wagenia et Lokele».
the bullroarer is tied to the tribal-initiation complex which "is found, with some variants, among the neighbours of the Babali: Bakumu, Babira, Wanyanza, Bangelima, Barundi, Bapopoi, Wagenia, and Lokele."
Söderberg 1956:184-185, quoting de Jonghe 1936:62
- Object
- Hollowed wooden, tamtam-shaped bullroarer on a two-to-three-metre cord, swung horizontally overhead.
- Function
- During Mombela initiation, Maduali swung the siren-like voice while Isumu tattooed blindfolded novices and Nasasa played the gray-ibis flute; the sound carried about three kilometres.
- Map confidence
- medium - Bali country, Bafwasende-Bomili area (mambela initiation belt)
- Source location
- Bernard 1922:351–352
- Spirit voice
- Initiation rite