Xhosa / Amakosa nodiwu bullroarer

nodiwu

nodiwu: isiXhosa name for the bull-roarer.

Among the Amakosa (Xhosa), the nodiwu was a slat of wood six or eight inches long, an inch or two wide, bevelled to a convex surface and whirled on a thong tied to a small wooden handle; spun round, it carried a long way. It was a boys' toy, George McCall Theal wrote, but a superstition held that playing with it invites a gale of wind, so men kept boys from using it when they wanted calm weather. It had a graver side too: among the Kaffirs, a correspondent of E. B. Tylor reported in 1881, the bull-roarer was sounded for rain-making and to warn women off the rites of initiation.

When a little child is crying inside a hut its mother or nurse will sometimes get a boy to make a noise with a nodiwu outside, and then induce the child to be still by pretending that a monster is coming to devour it.

George McCall Theal, Kaffir Folk-Lore (1882/1886), p. 209

Particulars

Function

Bullroarer associated with wind/rain making and initiation warning to women.