SUBSAH-008 - ethnographic attestation
Eyap / Eghap / Bagam
Bagam - West-Central Cameroon - Central Africa
Restricted
ngū muñ mo English
Source term: bull-roarer
The Eghap (Mengaka) name Malcolm gives for the bull-roarer; the print is damaged, so the spelling is approximate.
Among the Eyap (Eghap) at Bagam, the headquarters of the tribe in the Cameroon grassfields, the bull-roarer belonged to the commemorative ceremonies for the dead. In the rite L. W. G. Malcolm recorded in 1917-18, a dance was held at the grave of a relative some time after burial: the dancers assembled at a compound and a procession wound through the main roads of the town behind a central figure clothed in a cowrie-covered garment of native cloth, attended by men in rough leaf coverings and netted body-cloths who sang, danced, and played a drum, a basket rattle, and a notched raphia-palm rasp scraped with a piece of wood or iron to produce a stridulant sound. When they reached the burial place they danced a while and returned to their compounds; only that same night did a party of men go through the streets swinging the bull-roarer. No woman was allowed to see it, and if they heard it near at hand they had to go off into the bush, and it was sounded by certain men of one compound and no one else. Malcolm took the account from the government interpreter and had it confirmed by the head-chief.
The same night a party of men go through the streets swinging a bull-roarer (Fig. 1 b). This is called ngu munmo, and I was informed that no woman is allowed to see it. They must go into the bush if they hear it near at hand. It is played by certain men from one compound and no one else is supposed to use it.
L. W. G. Malcolm, "Notes on Birth, Marriage and Death Ceremonies of the Eyap Tribe (Central Cameroon)," Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 53 (1923): 400
- Object
- A bullroarer swung on a cord through the streets at night; exact Bagam objects MAA 1921.381 and 1921.382 preserve the commemorative-ceremony form, including 1921.382 N'kwi'i with its swinging stick attached.
- Function
- Death/burial-ceremony bull-roarer; women are not allowed to see it and should go into the bush if they hear it near at hand; played only by certain men from one compound.
- Map confidence
- medium - Bagam/Eghap-Mengaka regional anchor from Malcolm's Bagam headquarters statement plus secondary location sources; not a precise compound or ceremony-street coordinate.
- Source location
- Malcolm 1923 pp. 388-401; volume illustration list; Google Books snippets for local-name variants; MAA 1921.381 and 1921.382
- Spirit voice
- Death and rebirth
- Forbidden to women