EXH2026-040 - secondary catalog
Mbole (inano)
Democratic Republic of the Congo - NE Congo - Central Africa
Function not recorded
inano English
Source term: bullroarer (New Grove cross-entry)
inano: the Mbole name for the bullroarer.
Swung on its cord, this ellipsoidal slab of wood throws a low, tearing note the Mbole liken to the growl of a leopard — the beast whose teeth and menace run all through their forest law. Among these people of the upper Congo the growl is a spirit's voice, reserved to secret ceremony and kept from the uninitiated. Early cataloguers preserved the object and its name, inano; what they left unrecorded is the full script of who swung it, and on which night.
inano
K. A. Gourlay, 'Bullroarer,' Grove Music Online (after F. J. de Hen, 1960).
- Object
- Bullroarer, called inano.
- Function
- The Mbole name for the bullroarer is recorded; no use is described.
- Map confidence
- low_medium - Mbole country, Tshopo/Opala
- Source location
Page references
New Grove / Grove, Mbole entry (term inano)