TALBOT1926-002 - ethnographic attestation
Bakundu (Mbonge)
Southwest Cameroon - Meme Division (Bakundu) - Central Africa
Restricted
Eboku English
Source term: bull-roarer
Eboku: Talbot's transcription of the Bakundu (Oroko / Lukundu) name for the bull-roarer.
Forest farmers of the Meme country, behind Mount Cameroon, the Bakundu bound their men into a stack of secret associations -- and the roarer that served them, Eboku, was taken by outsiders for the very voice of the juju. Talbot found it feared most by those shut out of the societies: a booming out of the dark meant the men's business was abroad, and the uninitiated did best to keep clear. One Bakundu roarer had already reached a European collector before 1903, catalogued only as a "power object"; Talbot's page gives it the name and the dread the museum tag left blank.
The bull-roarer, called Eboku by Bakundu, is used by many of the associations and is much feared, especially by non-members, who believe it to be the voice of the juju.
Talbot, The Peoples of Southern Nigeria, vol. 3 (1926), p. 794.
- Object
- No morphology recorded; Talbot names the instrument a bull-roarer.
- Function
- Bull-roarer used by many of the secret associations and much feared by non-members, who take it for the voice of the juju.
- Map confidence
- medium - Bakundu regional anchor at Kumba, chief town of Meme Division and centre of the Bakundu villages; Talbot p. 794 names no performance locality.
- Source location
- vol. 3 p. 794
- Spirit voice