The Bullroarer Atlas

No. NKETIA1982-001

Goli's voice

Cote d'Ivoire · Baule country, central Côte d'Ivoire · West Africa

Sacred / spirit

Frobenius’s 1913 drawing of a wooden Bozo roarer from Siranikorro: a long leaf-shaped blade with a cord at its narrow end.
Plate I. Representative — not this record’s object. A wooden Bozo roarer from Siranikorro, 34 cm, drawn for Frobenius in 1913 Public domain · Image source

Source term: rhombe

Among the Baule of Côte d'Ivoire, the bullroarer is the voice of the god Goli. It is valued less for its sound than for what the sound is: when it roars, the listeners hear a god. Goli is also the name of a Baule masquerade, danced in helmet masks.

Particulars

Object
Not recorded.
Function
Represents the voice of the god Goli.

Source

J. H. Kwabena Nketia, 'Aspects relationnels de la musique dans les sociétés africaines,' Revue internationale des sciences sociales 34(4) (1982), p. 695

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Part of The Bullroarer Atlas, companion to The Eve Theory of Consciousness.