SUBSAH-005 - related instrument
Leele Nar'a kwei Kasai bullroarer recording
Democratic Republic of the Congo - Kasai - Leele country - Central Africa
Function not recorded
Nar'a kwei English
Source term: bullroarer
Nar'a kwei: Leele (Lele) vernacular name recorded for the bullroarer in the AfricaMuseum sound archive.
Bullroarers are found worldwide but are uncommon in Africa, which makes this Leele instrument from the Kasai a notable entry. The Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren records its vernacular name as Nar'a kwei and classifies it as a bullroarer: 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. It survives in the museum's sound archive as a recording catalogued in 1973. The record gives no account of what the Leele did with it or on what occasions it was sounded.
Bullroarers are found worldwide, but are not common in Africa.
Royal Museum for Central Africa (AfricaMuseum), online instruments archive, "Nar'a kwei (Leele)" page
- Object
- Bullroarer, recorded under the Leele name Nar'a kwei.
- Function
- Use not recorded.
- Map confidence
- medium - Leele Kasai regional anchor near Ilebo not Tervuren
- Source location
Page references
AfricaMuseum, Nar'a kwei (Leele) record