JOURNETDIALLO2021-001 - ethnographic attestation
Master of the forest, the bukut's roar
Jamaat country north of the Rio Cacheu, Cacheu Region, northern Guinea-Bissau - West Africa
Restricted
Source term: « maître de la forêt », masque sonore constitué d'un rhombe
« maître de la forêt » ("master of the forest"): the sound-mask of the Kujamaat bukut initiation, made of a bullroarer; bukut is the men's initiation and kareñ its forest.
Once in about thirty years the Jóola Kujamaat send their uninitiated boys into the sacred forest of kareñ for the bukut. At Esana in 1998 more than a thousand went in. Before they leave, the oldest initiate, the man who declared that "the knife is ripe," must die. For three months the village is frozen: no sacrifice may be made and no funeral held. At night those left behind hear drums far off and the bellowing of the "master of the forest." It is a sound-mask made of a bullroarer, played at this rite and no other, and the new initiates come out of the forest still not knowing what it is. They learn only when their turn comes to help initiate the boys of another village, and so the secret passes from forest to forest and keeps for a generation.
La nuit, on entend au loin résonner les tambours et mugir le « maître de la forêt », masque sonore constitué d'un rhombe uniquement joué en cette occasion
At night one hears, far off, the drums resounding and the "master of the forest" bellowing: a sound-mask made of a bullroarer, played only on this occasion.
Odile Journet-Diallo, L'Homme 239-240 (2021), p. 151
- Object
- A bullroarer played as a sound-mask, the "master of the forest"; not otherwise described.
- Function
- The voice of the "master of the forest", heard bellowing at night from the kareñ initiation forest during the three months of the bukut, the Kujamaat men's initiation held about every thirty years, and played at no other time. The neophytes learn what it is only when they help initiate boys in another village; women are expected to know nothing of what happens in the forest.
- Source
- Odile Journet-Diallo, « En être ou pas : à propos de trois rites initiatiques en pays jóola », L'Homme 239-240 (2021): 129-168, §49 (p. 151); fieldwork site §7 (p. 132); bukut cycle §§14-15 (p. 137); Esana 1998 (p. 144); women's testimony (p. 152)
- Source location
Page references
p. 151 (§49); pp. 132, 137, 144, 152
- Source confidence
- high
- Location note
- Suzana (Susana), São Domingos sector, Cacheu Region (Nominatim), taken as Journet-Diallo's "Esana", the Kujamaat village of her fieldwork; the identification is an inference from the name and her neighbouring village names. All Kujamaat villages lie within about 20 km.
Regions: Africa · West Africa
- Spirit voice
- Initiation rite
- Forbidden to women