EXH2026-035 - ethnographic attestation
Bapere (Pere)
Democratic Republic of the Congo - Pere country, North Kivu (Manguredjipa area) - Central Africa
Restricted
atuamba English
Source term: atuamba (bull-roarer)
atuamba — the Bapere name for the bull-roarer sounded at the circumcision rite.
Among the Bapere of the forest of Lubero Territory, west of Lake Edward in what is now North Kivu, the bull-roarer is whirled about the head at the boys' circumcision rite and goes by the name atuamba. Rose Brandel described it in her study of the music of the Belgian Congo and placed it among the lusumba — the Bapere word for the esoteric practices and taboo objects of the men's secret world, the same domain the neighboring Bakumu call esumba. The atuamba's voice belonged to that hidden order, sounded at the cutting that made boys into men.
- Object
- Bull-roarer whirled about the head.
- Function
- Sounded at the circumcision rite (Brandel's Belgian-Congo recordings; Kaufmann 1990 glossary: 'Atuamba (Congo-Bapere). Bull roarer used at the circumcision rite.').
- Map confidence
- high - Pere country, North Kivu, approximate
- Source location
- Brandel 1961 p. 26
- Initiation rite