Kuyu / Kouyou Ngwé bullroarer, Kouyougandza

Ngwé

Source term: rhombe

Ngwé = Kuyu/Kouyou local name for the rhombe; the source says it imitates the panther's roar.

When the sound-hunter Herbert Pepper recorded Congo life for his Anthologie de la vie africaine (1941-1956), the young people of Kouyougandza gave him the Ngwé: a blade of wood or bone spun on a cord to make 'a terrifying sound' — the imitation of the panther's roar. That roar had standing among the Kuyu, whose country divides at the river: the east under the serpent — 'the serpent created Ébongo, Ébongo created Éouya' runs the cosmogonic chain, Ébongo the first ancestor being at once snake and man — and the west under the panther, the chief's own animal, whose voice was an institution. The chief alone kept the great likouma drum that 'snores and buzzes like the voice of the panther,' and women and children who recognized it hid themselves. By Pepper's day the Ngwé was an amusement of children and adolescents, though he noted these toys had once played an important role among the adults.

"Rhombe" - ("Ngwé" chez les Kouyou) est une pièce de bois ou d'os en forme de lame, qui en tournoyant à l'extrémité d'un lien, fait entendre un son terrifiant.

Rhombe - Ngwé among the Kouyou - is a piece of wood or bone shaped like a blade which, spinning at the end of a cord, produces a terrifying sound.

CREM-CNRS CNRSMH_E_1959_002_004_001_09; Herbert Pepper booklet, p. 16.

Particulars

Object

Wood or bone blade spun at the end of a cord.

Function

Children's and adolescents' plaything, spun to mimic the panther's roar.