The Bullroarer Atlas

EXH2026-045 - secondary catalog

Andebogo (Mangbetu cluster)

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

Function not recorded

A ridged, notch-edged wooden bull-roarer bound with cord, labelled an Arab piece — shown for the general form; the Andebogo's kundrukundru,...
Representative image. A ridged, notch-edged wooden bull-roarer bound with cord, labelled an Arab piece — shown for the general form; the Andebogo's kundrukundru, recorded only by name, has no photograph. © Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford (acc. 1913.17.76) Image source

(atuamba type) English

Source term: bullroarer (New Grove cross-entry)

kundrukundru: the bull-roarer name recorded for the Andebogo, shared with the Adoi, Amanga and Andowi and cross-referenced to the regional "atuamba" family.

Etymology. An onomatopoeic name echoing the instrument's whirring buzz, shared with the Adoi, Amanga and Andowi; it is not a decomposable lexical word. (medium confidence)

The Andebogo of the northeastern Congo are recorded as one of four small peoples — alongside the Adoi, Amanga and Andowi — whose bull-roarer carries the name kundrukundru. The reference that preserves the word, the New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, gives only the term and routes the reader onward with "See ATUAMBA," the regional family of NE-Congo bull-roarers sounded at boys' initiation. The dictionary offers no Andebogo-specific account of how the instrument was used, who was permitted to see it, or whether it belonged to a men's cult; that initiation reading is documented for the wider atuamba complex and its better-attested neighbours, not for the Andebogo by name.

Kundrukundru. BULLROARER of the Adoi, Amanga, Andebogo and Andowi [peoples of Zaire]. See ATUAMBA.

New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, ed. Sadie (1984), vol. 2, p. 1010, s.v. "Kundrukundru"
Object
Bullroarer term/name-entry for the Andebogo: kundrukundru.
Function
Source-checked bullroarer term/cross-entry for the Andebogo; wider regional ritual context is not row-specific in the recovered evidence.
Map confidence
low_medium - Mangbetu-area microgroup, approximate
Source location
New Grove Dict. of Musical Instruments (1984) vol. 2, p. 1010, s.v. "Kundrukundru" (cross-ref "See ATUAMBA")

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