The Bullroarer Atlas

EXH2026-053 - museum specimen

Sango / Ngbandi (Biaba, Nord-Ubangi)

Democratic Republic of the Congo - NW DR Congo (northern Zaire per Grove) - Central Africa

Play / practical

A carved wooden bimbi rigged for use: an elongated blade banded with incised triangular ornament near its base, leaning against its straight...
A carved wooden bimbi rigged for use: an elongated blade banded with incised triangular ornament near its base, leaning against its straight handle stick with the connecting cord visible — the Sango/Ngbandi object from Biaba, Nord-Ubangi, documented here. Collection RMCA / AfricaMuseum, Tervuren — MO.0.0.13614

bimbi English

Source term: bimbi / rhombe / bull-roarer

bimbi: the Sango/Ngbandi (upper Ubangi) name for the bullroarer, a whirled wooden blade.

Two decorated wooden bullroarers from the village of Biaba, in Nord-Ubangi province in the north of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the Sango and Ngbandi peoples of the upper Ubangi River call the instrument bimbi. They are held at the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren, which records them not as ritual objects but as boys' playthings.

Object
Two decorated wooden bimbi bull-roarers from Biaba, Nord-Ubangi (RMCA MO.0.0.13614-1 and MO.0.0.13614-2).
Function
AfricaMuseum records identify the Biaba bimbi examples as secular boys' playthings; the older New Grove row supplied the named Sango term but had function pending.
Map confidence
medium - NW DRC, approximate (Grove gives region only)
Source location
RMCA MO.0.0.13614-1, MO.0.0.13614-2; New Grove s.v. Bimbi

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