The Bullroarer Atlas

SUBSAH-027 - secondary catalog

Masakin (Mesakin, Nuba)

Sudan - South Kordofan - Africa - Nuba Mountains

Play / practical

Two Yoruba Oro bull-roarers, mottled wooden blades on long cords, as engraved by Haddon in 1898; the toy bull-roarer that a Masakin girl of the...
Representative image. Two Yoruba Oro bull-roarers, mottled wooden blades on long cords, as engraved by Haddon in 1898; the toy bull-roarer that a Masakin girl of the Nuba Mountains makes and plays, filmed by the IWF in 1964, belongs to a different tradition entirely. A. C. Haddon, The Study of Man (1898) Public domain

Source term: leurre

At Tadoro in the Nuba Mountains, two days before Christmas 1962, a German film team recorded something the bullroarer literature rarely shows: girls' work. Masakin girls of eight to twelve made the toy themselves — a split-bamboo blade drilled near one end, strung on cotton cord they twisted from a ball, tied to a springy switch — and jerked it into circling sweeps until it whined. The filmmakers logged it as a 'leurre,' their own French label; no one recorded a Masakin name. No men's cult, no secrecy: a girl's own instrument, on film.

Ein Mädchen schnitzt ein flaches, längliches Schwirrholz, dreht aus einem Knäuel Baumwolle eine Schnur und befestigt das Schwirrholz damit an einer Gerte. Stehend spielt es mit dem fertiggestellten Spielzeug, das es ruckweise in kreisende Bewegungen versetzt. Dabei werden leise, surrende Laute erzeugt.

A girl carves a flat, elongated bullroarer, twists a cord from a ball of cotton, and uses it to fasten the bullroarer to a switch. Standing, she plays with the finished toy, setting it jerkily into circling motions. In doing so, faint whirring sounds are produced.

IWF film E694, "Masakin (Ostafrika, Kordofan) - Herstellen eines Spiel-Schwirrholzes" (1964), catalogue description, Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek
Object
End-holed split-bamboo blade, about 20 x 6 cm, hole drilled ~4 cm from one end; strung on a twisted-cotton cord fastened to a springy switch. Filmed 24-25 December 1962 at Tadoro; IWF ethnographic film 'Herstellen eines Spiel-Schwirrholzes' (E 694, released 1964).
Function
Made and played by Masakin girls aged 8-12 at Tadoro; whirled to a whining note. A girls' toy — notable against the men's-cult weight of the African bullroarer literature.
Map confidence
high - Tadoro village, the filming locality named in E 694 (OSM node 2550728880, name 'Tosari', alt 'Tadoro' — coordinates verified 2026-07-12; GeoNames 366557 sits ~3 km off under alt name 'Umm Durin').
Source location
DDB EE33ARFEIOPB76TN46KTGRDD5SVM42WY

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