Agu Mmanwu, Ajikwu's invisible member

Agu Mmanwu; Agummonwu

Source term: bull-roarer

Agu Mmanwu / agu mmonwu / agu mmuo: Igbo names of the bullroarer, as a spirit of the night masks; also ode giligili.

The Ajikwu night company of Igbo-Ukwu has five members. The Omenikolo lead it, feared and powerful. Isimkpi, the goat head, butts intruders with his pair of horns. Oguagba chants blood-chilling incantations and sets the tune for the twin soloists. Then come the dancers. The fifth member has no body at all: Agu Mmanwu, the invisible man-eating spirit, of whom you hear only a voice like bones being crushed, a rumble like thunder. That voice is a bullroarer, and it goes first, announcing that the masquerade is about to emerge from the dark.

You only hear his bone crushing timber voice.

Cyril Ike, quoted in Chike Okoye, 2020, p. 8

Particulars

Object

Not recorded for Igbo-Ukwu; the regional instrument is a flat blade of wood or bamboo, 15–40 cm long, swung on a rope.

Function

The voice of an invisible man-eating spirit, member of the Ajikwu night company, whose rumble announces the masquerade's emergence.