Guri, a voice of Afwi

Guri

Source term: bull-roarer

Its roar was one voice of the Afwi — the great bush spirit whose "multiple voice, its secret incarnations" fills the Toma sacred forest, where the drum is forbidden and only the spirit may sound. Swung during initiations and the long forest retreat, this rhombe, called Guri, was made to be heard and never seen: women and the bilakoro, the uninitiated boys, were shut in the dark of their huts while the masks came out only to frighten them. Pierre-Dominique Gaisseau talked his way into that forest in 1953 to hear it.

usage pendant les initiations

use during initiations

Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, 71.1933.40.188

Particulars

Object

Toma rhombe from Louma, called Guri.