The Bullroarer Atlas

EXH2026-060 - secondary catalog

Adoi (kundrukundru)

Democratic Republic of the Congo - NE Congo (Bira borderlands) - Central Africa

Function not recorded

A carved wooden bull-roarer from the Frobenius collection, its length banded in dark and pale wood-grain — shown for the general Central...
Representative image. A carved wooden bull-roarer from the Frobenius collection, its length banded in dark and pale wood-grain — shown for the general Central African form; the Adoi's own kundrukundru is unphotographed. Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (III C 27355), coll. Leo Frobenius CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Image source

kundrukundru English

Source term: bullroarer (Grove enumeration)

kundrukundru: Adoi (NE Congo) name for the bullroarer, onomatopoeic for its whirring roar; one of a family of like names (Amanga, Andebogo, Andowi) collected by de Hen.

Etymology. kundrukundru imitates the bullroarer's whirring roar rather than carrying a decomposable meaning; it is one of a family of reduplicated Congo names (Amanga, Andebogo, Andowi) collected by de Hen. (medium confidence)

For the Adoi of the northeastern Congo, the bullroarer is "kundrukundru" — one of a cluster of onomatopoeic Congo names (egburuburu, mbirimbiri, kunzukunzu among them) collected by de Hen, each simply echoing the instrument's whirring roar. That name is all the record preserves of the Adoi's own usage. The cult material in the same source — the slat sounded by spirits in restricted circumcision rites — is documented for other eastern-Congo peoples, not for the Adoi themselves; here the trail ends honestly at the word.

the varied names collected by de Hen suggest an onomatopoeic derivation, for example, the Adoi, Amanga, Andebogo and Andowi kundrukundru

F.J. de Hen, "Bull-roarer," Grove Music Online (after de Hen, Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Musikinstrumente aus Belgisch Kongo und Ruanda-Urundi, Tervuren, 1960)
Object
Bullroarer term/name-entry for the Adoi: kundrukundru.
Function
Source-checked bullroarer term/cross-entry for the Adoi; wider regional ritual context is not row-specific in the recovered evidence.
Map confidence
low_medium - NE DRC, approximate
Source location
Grove Music Online, "Bull-roarer," Africa section (onomatopoeic names list); after de Hen 1960 (Tervuren)

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  • Bagbwa (egburuburu/arumvu-rumvu)Democratic Republic of the Congo - NE Congo (Bira borderlands) - Function not recorded
  • MamvuDemocratic Republic of the Congo - NE Congo (Bira borderlands) - Function not recorded
  • NyaliDemocratic Republic of the Congo - NE Congo (Bira borderlands) - Function not recorded
  • Aimeri (Mangbetu cluster)Democratic Republic of the Congo - NE Congo (atuamba belt) - Function not recorded
  • 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