Mbum Ngan-Ha circumcision rhombe

Djerr / Sirr / Dirr (wider Mbum)

Source term: rhombe

rhombe: French for bullroarer, the word Froelich uses for the Ngan-Ha instrument.

At Ngan-Ha the bullroarer entered the boys' circumcision at a moment of deliberate terror: as the niadok set it turning, women and the uncircumcised were ordered indoors and told that fe-mbaka, 'the devourer,' was abroad. Among the wider Mbum, Frobenius heard the same instruments called Djerr, Sirr or Dirr, kept in a mountain cave no woman might see; when the whirring rolled in from the bush, women who asked were told it was Djerr the leopard or Mbaga the lion moving among the boys.

le niadok fait tourner le rhombe

the niadok makes the bullroarer turn

Froelich 1959, p. 110

Particulars

Object

Froelich does not describe the Ngan-Ha blade. Wooden forms among the wider Mbum were kept in a mountain cave and learned by initiates.

Function

Sounded at boys' circumcision: at Ngan-Ha the niadok turned the rhombe while women indoors were told fe-mbaka, 'the devourer,' was present; among the wider Mbum the cave-kept Djerr voiced the leopard, Mbaga the lion.