RMCA2026-001 - museum specimen
Bozo (Nouhoun-Bozo)
Mali - Mopti Region - Djenne-Tenenkou area - West Africa
Play / practical
Source term: rhombe / bull-roarer
The museum's record is blunt about this slim, slightly curved blade of wood, perforated at one end and strung on a twisted cord: among the Bozo it had no sacred significance and was used as a plaything by young boys. The Bozo are the Niger's fishing people, of the Mopti region in central Mali, and the surface of the piece is worked with incised geometric motifs filled in black. It was collected at Nouhoun-Bozo by the ethnologist Herta Haselberger and is now in the Royal Museum for Central Africa, outside Brussels.
Ce bâtonnet vibrant n'a aucune signification sacrée et était utilisé comme jouet par les jeunes garçons.
This buzzing stick has no sacred significance and was used as a plaything by young boys.
Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA/AfricaMuseum), object record MO.1965.17.11
- Object
- Slightly curved decorated wooden bull-roarer with cord from Nouhoun-Bozo, Mopti Region (RMCA MO.1965.17.11).
- Function
- Museum record identifies it as a secular boys' plaything.
- Map confidence
- medium_high - Nouhoun-Bozo village anchor; museum export gives Nouhoun-Bozo, Mopti Region.
- Source location
- RMCA MO.1965.17.11
- Toy / secular survival