MUS2026-131 - museum specimen
Kassena
Koumbili, Pô subdivision, southern Burkina Faso - West Africa
Weather / fertility magic
nàvúni German
Source term: Schwirrholz
nàvúni: title recorded for the Kassena MKB bullroarers; no independent translation is asserted.
In Kassena country around Pô, boys guarding the ripening fields swung the nàvúni to drive off birds and monkeys — the sound, people said, could pass for a lion's roar. After the harvest, the same instruments came out simply for fun. Basel's pair, collected at Koumbili by Kunz Dittmer in 1956, are flat kapok-wood blades with burnt-in cord holes, their doubled twisted cords running as long as 175 centimetres.
Wird von das Feld hütenden Knaben geschwungen, um Vögel und Affen zu vertreiben (diese sollen den Ton für Löwengebrüll halten). Ferner nach der Ernte zur Belustigung.
Swung by the boys guarding the fields to drive off birds and monkeys (these are said to take the sound for a lion's roar). Also, after the harvest, for amusement.
Museum der Kulturen Basel, digitized collection card for III 14404.
- Object
- Two Kassena wooden bullroarers with cord, MKB III 14404 and III 14405, collected by Kunz Dittmer in 1956. The III 14404 card describes a flat kapok-wood slat with a burnt-in cord hole; the catalogued lengths of 175 and 110 cm record the doubled twisted cords, not the slats.
- Function
- Swung by boys guarding the fields to drive off birds and monkeys, which are said to take the sound for a lion's roar; after the harvest it was swung for amusement.
- Map confidence
- high - Pô town anchor; the card's findspot is Koumbili, Subdivision Pô, Cercle de Ouagadougou (Haute Volta).
- Source location
- MKB III 14404 and III 14405
- Weather / fertility magic
- Toy / secular survival