The Bullroarer Atlas

EXH2026-023 - ethnographic attestation

Gwari (Gbagyi)

Nigeria - Gbagyi homeland (Niger State - FCT Abuja) - West Africa

Sacred / spirit

A flat bamboo strip burned with a zigzag line running most of its length, a lone X near the tip, twine coiled around the other end: an African...
Representative image. A flat bamboo strip burned with a zigzag line running most of its length, a lone X near the tip, twine coiled around the other end: an African bullroarer of the general type, not the Gwari (Gbagyi) instrument whirled by a priest's attendant documented here. © The Trustees of the British Museum (E/Af1962-17-66) CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Image source

Source term: bull-roarer

Among the Gwari, a judicial oath was a self-imprecation given punishing force. The priest addressed the fetish on the swearer's behalf: "If this man is lying, then may he die, but if not may his life be secure." As he spoke, his attendant whirled a bull-roarer round his head. A sacrifice followed, and its blood was let to run into a hole in the ground; the hole was then covered over with a stone, the act standing, in C. K. Meek's account, for "the covering up" or burial of a perjurer. Meek collected the rite during the 1921 census of the Northern Provinces, setting it among a catalogue of northern Nigerian oaths sworn on swords, neolithic axes, blacksmith's pincers, and the leaf of the sacred shea-tree.

The Gwari oath is administered by the priest, who addresses the fetish with these words: "If this man is lying, then may he die, but if not may his life be secure." The priest's attendant then whirls the bull-roarer round his head. Sacrifice is offered, and the blood is allowed to flow into a hole in the ground.

Meek 1925, The Northern Tribes of Nigeria, vol. 1:265
Object
Bull-roarer whirled round the head by the priest's attendant.
Function
Judicial oath rite: while the priest administers the oath before the fetish, his attendant whirls the bull-roarer round his head; sacrifice follows (Meek).
Map confidence
high - Gbagyi homeland centroid (Minna-Suleja-Paiko core)
Source location
vol. 1 p. 265

View source Open this point on the interactive map