NYANGWESO1930-001 - ethnographic attestation
Luo adherents of the Mumbo cult, Alego, western Kenya
Kenya - Alego, Central Kavirondo (Siaya) - East Africa
Sacred / spirit
The Mumbo cult rose among the Luo of Alego in the early twentieth century, a new religion answering colonial rule with the voice of a lake spirit. Its prescriptions, taken down from adherents, put the bullroarer at the centre of observance: sacrifices to Mumbo were to be made with dancing to the sound of drums and bull-roarers, and not at a single shrine but in every boma — every homestead its own place of the whirring voice.
- Object
- No object recovered; reported prescription only.
- Function
- Cult worship: sacrifices to Mumbo were to be made 'with dancing to the accompaniment of drums and bull-roarers', in every boma.
- Map confidence
- low_medium - Alego location, Siaya county — the cult's origin district.
- Source location
- Nyangweso 1930, p. 15
- Spirit voice