The Bullroarer Atlas

No. SUBSAH-005

Leele Nar'a kwei Kasai bullroarer recording

Democratic Republic of the Congo · Kasai · Leele country · Central Africa

Function not recorded

A long, narrow Congo Basin bullroarer blade with dark triangular and crossbar designs, attached to a pale cord.
Plate I. Representative — not this record’s object. Congo Basin bullroarer with dark geometric decoration. Image source

Nar'a kwei

Source term: bullroarer

Nar'a kwei: Leele (Lele) vernacular name recorded for the bullroarer in the AfricaMuseum sound archive.

The Leele of the Kasai call the bullroarer Nar'a kwei: an elongated, flat, oval disk pierced at one end, where a long cord is knotted and swung rapidly above the head to produce a low buzzing hum. What survives of theirs is that hum — a recording in the Tervuren sound archive.

Bullroarers are found worldwide, but are not common in Africa.

Royal Museum for Central Africa (AfricaMuseum), online instruments archive, "Nar'a kwei (Leele)" page

Particulars

Object
Bullroarer, recorded under the Leele name Nar'a kwei.
Function
Use not recorded.

Source

Royal Museum for Central Africa (AfricaMuseum), Tervuren, 'Nar'a kwei' (Leele) record

View the source · archived

Part of The Bullroarer Atlas, companion to The Eve Theory of Consciousness.