Gwari (Gbagyi) oath rite

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. Elsewhere in northern Nigeria men swore on swords, neolithic axes, blacksmith's pincers and the leaf of the sacred shea-tree; the Gwari swore beneath a whirling bull-roarer.

Even the actual swearing of the oath may be deferred, e.g. it may not be taken at the trial at all but be postponed (as commonly among the Gwari) to the time of the annual festival.

C. K. Meek, The Northern Tribes of Nigeria (1925), vol. 1, p. 264

Particulars

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).