The Bullroarer Atlas

KUNST2026-001 - museum specimen

Bamana

Mali - Segou region, middle Niger (eastern Bamana) - West Africa

Sacred / spirit

The object itself: forged-iron Bamana ritual bullroarer collected by Leo Frobenius, rope bundle through the eye at the narrow end. Kunstkamera...
The object itself: forged-iron Bamana ritual bullroarer collected by Leo Frobenius, rope bundle through the eye at the narrow end. Kunstkamera МАЭ № 1688-58. © МАЭ РАН, Кунсткамера (МАЭ № 1688-58) Image source
The wooden member of the same Bamana pair: a dark leaf-shaped ritual bullroarer collected by Leo Frobenius, with cord knotted through its end...
The wooden member of the same Bamana pair: a dark leaf-shaped ritual bullroarer collected by Leo Frobenius, with cord knotted through its end hole. Kunstkamera МАЭ № 1688-57. © МАЭ РАН, Кунсткамера (МАЭ № 1688-57) Image source

Source term: жужжалка обрядовая (ritual roarer)

«Жужжалка обрядовая» is the Kunstkamera's catalog term, 'ritual roarer'; no Bamana name was recorded with the object.

Eastern Bamana ritual roarers could be made in radically different materials. One Kunstkamera pair sets a dark, leaf-shaped wooden blade beside a smaller bullroarer forged from iron; both retain the cords knotted through their narrow ends. The museum recorded them simply as sacred roarers.

Object
Pair of eastern Bamana ritual bullroarers: a leaf-shaped wooden blade, 25 × 4.5 × about 2 cm, and a forged tapering iron blade, 17 × 3 × about 0.4 cm, both with cord knotted through the narrow end. Kunstkamera МАЭ № 1688-57 and 1688-58.
Function
Catalogued as sacred or ritual roarers; the particular ceremony is not recorded.
Map confidence
high - Segou, historic core of the eastern Bamana (Bamana Kingdom of Segou) on the middle Niger, matching the original inventory's «восточные бамана» and the DIAFE route through the French Sudan
Source location
МАЭ № 1688-57 and 1688-58 (objects 16960 and 16961)

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