The Bullroarer Atlas

NODJITOLABAYE2019-001 - ethnographic attestation

Sar nguebadge, the chief of the dead

Kingdom of Bédaya, Mandoul, southern Chad - Africa

Restricted

Representative—not this record’s object: a circumcision rhombe from Garoua, northern Cameroon.
Representative — not this record’s object. · a circumcision rhombe from Garoua, northern Cameroon. Image source

nguebadge

Source term: rhombe

nguebadge: the bullroarer or its voice, called “chief of the dead” and “voice of the ancestors”.

Through the whole of the Sar initiation a voice sounds that women and children must never meet. It is called the chief of the dead, or the voice of the ancestors, and it comes from a small wooden board whirled on a cord by the muù, the priests who lead each band of boys and hold every secret of the rite. Their office passes down the lineage, and at its head stands the king of Bédaya himself, the Mbang, so sacred that he may not touch the ground. The boys are “killed”, and once home they must behave so that the women believe the death was real. The Sar say the secret of the initiation came to them from the Mbay.

Le son du rhombe ou le nguebadge, encore appelé « chef des morts » ou « voix des ancêtres » va retentir durant toute l’initiation, fait peur aux femmes et enfants.

The sound of the bullroarer, the nguebadge, also called “chief of the dead” or “voice of the ancestors”, rings out through the whole initiation and frightens women and children.

Nodjitolabaye Kouladoumadji, Annales de l’Université de Moundou 6(1) (2019), p. 342
Object
A small wooden board tied to a cord and whirled.
Function
Held by the muù, the hereditary initiation priests headed by the king, and sounded through the whole of the boys’ initiation as the voice of the ancestors; women and children must not meet it.
Source
Nodjitolabaye Kouladoumadji, « Manifestation du sacré en milieu Sara Madjingaye au Tchad », Annales de l’Université de Moundou, Série A (FLASH) 6(1) (2019): 321-350, pp. 337-338, 342, 345; W. Konrad, Sara-M’Bai (Zentralafrika, Mittlerer Schari): Herstellen einer Maske für die Knaben-Initiation, Encyclopaedia Cinematographica E 1519 (Göttingen: Institut für…
Source location
Page references

Nodjitolabaye 2019 p. 342 (§2.3.2.5), pp. 337-338, 345 | Konrad 1973 p. 6

Source confidence
medium to high
Location note
Bédaya town, Mandoul (OSM/Nominatim), seat of the Mbang of Bédaya, the Sar king who heads the initiation priests; anchor for the kingdom. The source names no single initiation camp. A second, smaller Bédaya village at 8.613, 17.606 is not the royal seat.

Regions: Africa · Central Africa

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