MUS2026-033 - museum specimen
Hausa
Katsina, northern Nigeria - West Africa
Play / practical
KURA English
Source term: bull-roarer
Etymology. PRM records `kura` as the Hausa local name for the bullroarer/dog-call. Hausa dictionaries gloss `kura` as hyena, but the museum record itself does not explain the object name. (medium confidence)
Among Hausa hunters around Katsina, the kura was a dog-call: a length of guinea-corn stalk, perforated and whirled on a string to summon the pack for the hunt. Its name means 'hyena.' It entered the Pitt Rivers Museum in 1933 alongside corn-stalk clarinets, tsiriki, that served the same purpose.
kura of corn-stalk, perforated and whirled on a string, used as above, Hausa (Katsina)
Pitt Rivers Museum Annual Report 1933–34 (donation of P. G. Harris; PRM acc. 1933.69.3)
- Object
- Bull-roarer of the Hausa, collected by Percy Graham Harris at Katsina, northern Nigeria; Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford (acc. 1933.69.3).
- Function
- Hunting dog-call: a corn-stalk instrument whirled on a string to call dogs; no ritual function stated.
- Map confidence
- low - approximate culture/locality centroid
- Source location
- 1933.69.3