Yoruba Abomey eke bullroarer

Eke

Source term: Rhombe

Eke: the Yoruba name for this blade.

A single terminal hole is the only clue to how this spare, narrow blade from the Abomey region once hung and swung. The Musée de l'Homme catalogued it in 1949 simply as Eke, a musical instrument — brought back by a traveling photographer named Pierre Verger, whose West African journeys would end three years later in his own initiation at Ketu as Fatumbi, a priest of Ifa.

Instrument de musique.

Musical instrument.

Quai Branly object 71.1949.93.4

Particulars

Object

Long narrow flat wooden blade, 37 x 3.4 x 1 cm and 52 g, with one terminal suspension hole. No cord survives in the photograph.

Function

A musical instrument; no particular use recorded.