EXH2026-043 - secondary catalog
Aimeri (kunzukunzu)
Democratic Republic of the Congo - NE Congo - Central Africa
Function not recorded
kunzukunzu 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
K. A. Gourlay, 'Bullroarer,' Grove Music Online (after F. J. de Hen, 1960).
- Object
- Bullroarer, called kunzukunzu.
- Function
- The Aimeri name for the bullroarer is recorded; no use is described.
- Map confidence
- low_medium - Mangbetu-area microgroup, approximate
- Source location
Page references
New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments (1984), s.v. "Kunzukunzu" ("See ATUAMBA"); s.v. "Atuamba"