The Bullroarer Atlas

No. MINE2026-086

Ndumba mwila, the fish-shaped monster

Zambia · Wukengi Farm · Nyaluhana vicinage, Mwinilunga District, North-Western Province · South-Central Africa

Restricted

A long, narrow Congo Basin bullroarer blade with dark triangular and crossbar designs, attached to a pale cord.
Plate I. Representative — not this record’s object. A carved Leele bullroarer from the Kasai (Tervuren) Image source

ndumba mwila

Source term: bull-roarer

ndumba mwila: ndumba means 'lion'; of mwila Turner could learn only that it was a word 'from long, long ago.'

Behind the Ndembu Mukanda lodge at Wukengi, a junior guardian whirled ndumba mwila, a fish-shaped bullroarer carved from red mukula wood. Its growl terrified the novices and their mothers. The old explanation was worse: a monster had come to swallow the boys.

a 'bull-roarer,' a fish-shaped piece of carved mukula wood

Victor Turner, The Forest of Symbols (1967), pp. 188-189.

Particulars

Object
A fish-shaped piece of carved mukula wood, whirled behind a Mukanda lodge.

Source

Victor Turner, The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual (1967), Mukanda chapter, pp. 188-189

View the source

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