The Bullroarer Atlas

EXH2026-043 - secondary catalog

Aimeri (Mangbetu cluster)

Democratic Republic of the Congo - NE Congo (atuamba belt) - Central Africa

Function not recorded

A small rectangular wooden block wound with cord, again labelled an Arab rather than Aimeri piece — shown for the general form; the Aimeri's...
Representative image. A small rectangular wooden block wound with cord, again labelled an Arab rather than Aimeri piece — shown for the general form; the Aimeri's kunzu-kunzu has no published photograph. © Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford (acc. 1913.17.74) Image source

(atuamba type) English

Source term: bullroarer (New Grove cross-entry)

kunzu-kunzu: Aimeri (Mangbetu-cluster) name for the bullroarer; a reduplicated onomatopoeic form for the whirled blade, grouped by the New Grove with the atuamba type of the NE Congo / Uele region.

For the Aimeri of north-eastern Congo the bullroarer is recorded under the name kunzu-kunzu. The standard organological dictionary files it as one of a fan of regional names for a single instrument, cross-referenced to the atuamba type of the Uele forests, and naming the people without describing the rite. Among neighbouring groups where the atuamba's use is documented it is whirled at circumcision; but no such account survives for the Aimeri in particular. Here only the word, and the family it belongs to, is firmly attested.

kunzu-kunzu

New Grove / Grove bullroarer term or cross-entry, local audit locator in page_or_plate
Object
Bullroarer term/name-entry for the Aimeri: kunzu-kunzu.
Function
Source-checked bullroarer term/cross-entry for the Aimeri; wider regional ritual context is not row-specific in the recovered evidence.
Map confidence
low_medium - Mangbetu-area microgroup, approximate
Source location
New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments (1984): "Kunzukunzu", vol. 2, p. 1010 ("See ATUAMBA"); "Atuamba", Grove vol. 1, p. 850

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  • Amanga (Mangbetu cluster)Democratic Republic of the Congo - NE Congo (atuamba belt) - Function not recorded
  • Andebogo (Mangbetu cluster)Democratic Republic of the Congo - NE Congo (atuamba belt) - Function not recorded
  • Andowi (Mangbetu cluster)Democratic Republic of the Congo - NE Congo (atuamba belt) - Function not recorded
  • MayogoDemocratic Republic of the Congo - NE Congo (atuamba belt) - Function not recorded
  • Mbole (Opala)Democratic Republic of the Congo - NE Congo (atuamba belt) - Function not recorded
  • Zande (Azande)Democratic Republic of the Congo - NE Congo (atuamba belt) - Function not recorded