The Bullroarer Atlas

No. MARKK1937-001

Baxananwa sebubu, a big toy

South Africa · Northern Transvaal (Blouberg · Blauwberg), now Limpopo · Southern Africa

Play / practical

Tapering wooden blade with a painted zigzag border and bound cord.
Plate I. Representative — not this record’s object. Tapering wooden blade with a painted zigzag border and bound cord Image source

sebubu

Source term: Gr. Schwirrholz (Kinderspielzeug)

sebubu: the Baxananwa name for a large bullroarer; no gloss is given. Baxananwa: older spelling of Bahananwa (Hananwa), with x for the guttural h.

Sebubu was a big bullroarer, and among the Baxananwa of the northern Transvaal it belonged to the children. Their country lay around the Blouberg, a long mountain rising out of the bushveld. In 1894 the Baxananwa chief Mmaleboxo, whom the Boers called Malaboch, held that mountain through a siege of months against the army of the Transvaal republic before he was taken prisoner on 31 July. Forty-three years later a sebubu travelled to Hamburg.

Particulars

Object
One large bullroarer; materials and dimensions not recorded.
Function
A children's toy.

Sources

  1. Museum am Rothenbaum (MARKK), Hamburg, Sammlungs-Datenbank Afrika ab 1921, inv. 37.79:1 View
  2. N. J. van Warmelo, A Preliminary Survey of the Bantu Tribes of South Africa (Pretoria, 1935), p. 44 View
  3. South African History Online, 'Chief Malaboch (Mmalebôho, Mmalebôxo), chief of the Xananwa people, surrenders to Comdt-Gen. Piet Joubert' View

Part of The Bullroarer Atlas, companion to The Eve Theory of Consciousness.