Bamba child's toy roarer

Source term: bull-roarer

Swung on a cord, this poker-worked slat of wood — long as a forearm, a mere thirty-four grams — hummed and whirred in a child's hands in the forest towns around Okondja. When it left eastern Gabon before 1935, only two words travelled with it: jouet d'enfant, a child's toy. Among the Bamba this bullroarer was simply a plaything that sang.

Jouet d'enfant.

Child's toy.

Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, inv. 71.1935.80.128

Particulars

Object

Bamba rhombe from Okondja (Quai Branly 71.1935.80.128).