SCHWAB1947-003 - ethnographic attestation
Gio (Dan, Ge), Bɔ circumcision society
Liberia - Central Province - Nimba (Gio country) - West Africa
Restricted
Source term: bull-roarer
The Gio circumcision school ran three devils: the ge zo who led it, the cutting devil who did the surgery, and the medicine-making zo. The ge zo went naked in the Bush with the boys, and when he came out only initiates were permitted to see him — they shouted "Ke yu! Ke yu!" so that women and children could run and hide. His crier, who doubled as his messenger, talked with a bull-roarer. In the evening, when the newly cut boys walked home, they "make bull-roarer talk" to warn people off the road ahead of them, because they must not see women and children until the school released them. The instrument is doing something slightly unusual here. The prohibition is stated from the inside out: it is not that women may not see the boys, it is that the boys may not see women — and the roarer is how a group of children under that constraint moved through inhabited country.
His crier talks with a bull-roarer. In the evening, when the boys come out to go to their homes, they also "make bull-roarer talk" to warn people away. They must not see women and children until they are released from the Bush.
George Schwab, Tribes of the Liberian Hinterland (Peabody Museum Papers 31, 1947), p. 280.
- Object
- Not described; no Gio name recorded.
- Function
- Sounded by the crier of the ge zo, the leading devil of the circumcision school, to clear the road ahead of him, and then by the newly cut boys themselves as they came out in the evening to go home. In both cases the sound is a warning to women and children to run and hide: the initiates must not see them until the school releases them.
- Map confidence
- medium - Sanniquellie, Nimba County, Liberia, as a centroid anchor for Gio/Dan territory. Ethnic-area anchor, not a findspot.
- Source location
- p. 280
- Spirit voice
- Initiation rite
- Forbidden to women