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User:Jacqke/Traditional African lutes

< User:Jacqke
African lutes
The Moroccan Guinbri was created by people brought from Sub-Saharan Africa to the Mediterranean North. Like the mix of cultures that make up the Gnawa people, the instrument has features that tie it to multiple cultures today.
String instrument
Classification plucked string instrument
Hornbostel–Sachs classification321.31

321.33

Lutes in which the string bearer is a plain handle (handle lutes)

  • 321.31 in which the handle extends through both sidewalls of the resonator diametrically (spike lutes)
  • 321.33 in which the handle extends into but does not pass completely through the resonator (tanged lutes)
    • 321.331 tanged bowl lutes
    • 321.332 tanged box lutes

See also: Sub-Saharan African music traditions

Early common cultural bonds

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Kingdoms and group associations in West Africa which interconnected cultures included the Mali Empire c. 1235–1670, Sosso Empire c. 1054–c. 1235, Gao Empire c. 7th century–1325, Ghana Empire c. 100–300–c. mid-1200s and Pre-imperial Mali. It was in the Mali Empire that Al-'Umari and Ibn Battūta mentioned the use of lutes.[1].

Later kingdoms inluded the Songhai Empire c. 1430s–1591, Jolof Empire 13-14th century–1549, Kaabu Empire 1537–1867, and Empire of Great Fulo 1512–1776.

Outside cultural influence includes contact with India, Indonesia/Malay culture, Muslim culture and European culture.

Characteristics

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Lutes in Africa may be distinguished geographically, to include West Africa, the Maghreb, and the Rice Coast. They have been grouped by cultures and peoples that play them. They have been grouped by status such as instruments of Griots (a caste of professional musician) and folk instruments. They may be viewed in terms of their structural characteristics and the methods musicians use in playing the instruments.

321.31 spike lutes

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These are lutes in which a handle passes through both side walls of a resonator, or through indentations at the top of the bowl. Handles tend to be rods or sticks.[1, p7] Among African lutes these are found along the rice coast.





321.32 necked lutes

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Lutes in which the carved neck is attached to the resonator or carved from the resonator.[1, p7] Lutes in this category tend to be in countries bordering on the Mediterranean and with cultural connections to the middle east. Typical examples include the oud, kwitra and gambus. This category also includes Coptic lutes (Egyptian), which have similarities to ancient Egyptian lutes, but also to Greek/Roman pandura and the rubab (Pamiri rubab, Seni rebab). The Coptic lute's neck is hollow, as are the rubabs.

In Africa these have been introduced from outside the continent. The Oud or Kwitra arrived with Muslims and is used in North Africa for Chaabi music. The Algerian mandole is a 20th century invention, modeled off the French mandola. The gabusi, an import from Yemen is played from the east coast of Africa to Indonesia. The guitar has been imported in modern times and some African lutes now are called guitar, as seen on postage stamps.

321.33 tanged lutes

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Also called a semi-spike lute or internal-spike lute. These are instruments like the spike lutes, except that the handle touches only one side of the resonator body, the end remaining inside or poking through the soundboard. These do not piece the resonator body but rest in an indentation in the resonator; those like the Griot lutes are woven in and out through the skin sound table[1, p7] These are the typical lute of West Africa. Some non-Griot lutes have the handle lying on top of the sound table.


North Africa and Maghrib

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Related articles: Gnawa music, Stambali, Hausa animism (Bori trance), Sufi-trance music [1] (Jilala), de:Dodo (Kult) Spirit possessionHamadshaZār



names and variations of names Description Ethnic connections, regions Picture Picture
Guembri (الكمبري)

Gombri

gimbri (Hausa)

Hajhouj,[2] Hajhuj (Gnawa, Morocco)

hejhouj (Hausa)

Sintir (Arabic: سنتير)

tanged, bass range. 1-1.5 meters long, oval or rectangular body of carved wood with untanned skin soundboard tacked on, sheep-gut strings attached to neck with leather straps

Moroccan lute is tanged, in which the handle ends inside the body of the instrument, the end visible through a hole.

There are also spike lute in Tunisia, in which the handle pokes through the sidewall of the body, for strings to anchor on.

Both use a u-shaped bridge that sits on top of the soundboard.

Algeria

Morocco

Tunisia

Gnawa tradition, peoples linked to subsaharran Africa. Played in Maghreb countries (Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria) by Gnawa for concerts and lila and Haḍra (religious ritual).[3] May be present amplified with tbal drum and qarqabs.[3]

Lila rituals are musically induced trances, both religious and therapeutic.[4] The Malam is a "master of ceremonies", guiding the participants' trance.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).[5] Tunisian possession ritual is called Stambali.[note 1][6]

Instruments may come with sersar (Moroccan Arabic for jangling bells, as on an alarm clock).[7][8]

 
Morocco. Sersar (meaning "bell") from Moroccan guembri, sticking out of the end of the guembri's neck, 19th century. The sersar gives a rattling or jangling rhythm that is audible when krakebs are not present to set up a dance rhythm.[8]
 
Tunisia. A shop owner sits with a man, who is playing Gombri. The owner is also a yenna, a musician and religious and cultural storyteller. Full spike lute.[9] Instrument has jingles, placed at bottom of instrument.
 
Tunisia. Full spike lute. Body possibly made from metal can. Jingles are placed on bottom of instrument.
 
Morocco. Sintir player. Tannged lute.
 
Morocco. Guembri player. Tanged lute.
 
Algeria. Tanged lute, same as Moroccan.
 
Algeria, c. 1909. Gnawa musician with Guembri, has jingles on end of handle. Jingles same placement as on Hausa and Gbagyi instruments.
Lotar (لوتار)

Lothar

Lutar

Loutar

hejhouj

sentir

A Guembri or Sintir with pear or oval shape and 2-4 tuning pegs, about 50-130 centimetes long.[10] Bowl back carved from block of wood with separate fitted neck, goatskin soundboard, 3 or 4 strings.[10] Largest version may have 8 strings.[10] Played with "long curved pick".[11] "Tuned in E-A-D-G over two octaves".[10] Sound is somewhat "muffled".[10] Sufi tradtions. Berber peoples. A Lotar is a version of the Guembri. Largest versions, 4-8 strings are played by Amazigh bards of Atlas mountains.[10][12] A 4-string version is played by the Jebala people of Jajouka, Morocco. Amazigh, Amazighen, Berber peoples. Sufi religious traditions, "trance-inducing music".[13] Mohamed Rouicha popularized it.
 
Picture of a 4-string gimbri. This style may also be called lutar.
 
Louthar
 
Photograph postcard of Moroccan man playing Guembrit, circa 1900-1910
 
Gnawa tradition Guinbri from Marrakesh.
 
Morocco, before 1981. Lothar
 
Mohamed Rouicha playing a loutar.
 
Morocco. Lotar player.
suissen

suisdi

swisdi

Pear shaped guembris, smaller than 50 cm length.[10] May have tortoiseshell resonator.[14][15] Morocco. Sold as tourist souvenirs.[10] Used in Malhun orchestras to play Moroccan classical music.[10][15]
 
Small lothar with tortoiseshell body (called akroun or fakrun). Possible Suissen.
 
Small-sized gumbri's in Tunisia. Tourist souvenirs.
 
Small guinbri. Possibly a Suissen.
 
Algerian woman playing small guembri or suissen.
 
Painting by Rudolf Ernst (1854–1932), called Gnaoua in a North African Interior, showing a man playing a Suissen-type Guembri.

West Africa

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Jaliya, the Griot tradition

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A Susu griot holds holds a lute with a figure "8" shape body, about 1910, standing behind two sitting women. Mande speakers (of which Susu people are among) call their lutes nkoni or ngoni.[16]

Western writers have made a habit of calling professional musicians from Sub-Saharan Africa, "griots," and have generalized all similar lutes as "ngoni" or "xalam" or "griot lutes."[17] The assumption is that since outsiders cannot see or hear the difference, then it isn't worth the effort to sort them. But late 20th century and early 21st century writers began to cast doubt on the assumption and to come up with ways to classify the instruments. One of the further classifications was to separate griot lutes from folk lutes.[17]

Griot lutes

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Griot traditions center on Mali, Senegal, Gambia and Guinea, among people in the Mande language family, Wolof, western Fulbe Songhai, Sereen, Lebu and Tukulóor peoples. Outside of these countries, griot tradition may follow relatives of these peoples living in Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau and Niger. As a term, griot is overused by western writers. The job of a griot is as a professional musician, praise singer and word artisan. The term applies to a rank in triparte Islamic caste systems, in which only members of that caste (nearly always the men) may play the griot lutes. Caste names vary by language and people and include: iherden (Kel Tamashek people), blacksmith caste; iggawin (Moors); jeserey wayborey (Songhai people), maabu'be (weavers and singers highest cast) and wammbaa'be (also play nyaanyoora), FulBe, jali, jeli, gewel.[18][19]

Griot refers to people in Muslim cultures with a tripartite caste system. Not every Muslim culture uses griots; an example of one that doesn't is the Hausa people. Calling musicians griots who are from non-griot cultures offends sensitivities linked to identity. When a culture has the "strict tripartite caste system" there are established standards for what constitutes a griot, what rules affect music and wat constitutes a griot lute and a non-griot lute. Only griots play griot lutes; nearly all of these are wood-bodied instruments with a stick neck installed as a semi-spike and a fan-shaped bridge. Non-griot lutes may be wood (such as the Hausa molo), but are more often made of gourd or calabash with a cylindrical bridge sitting on top of the soundboard; these may be semi-spike lutes or full-spike lutes.[18][19]





-fan shaped bridge feature of West African griot instruments[charry, p5]


" It is the special kind of bridge, shaped like a fan, that in combination with the features noted above, marks the lute played exclusively by griots as uniquely West African"[Charry, p9]

"The neck rests on the top of the body. It is "attached to the soundboard."Cite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page).

Names and variations Description Ethnic connections, regions Pictures Pictures
Gambare Soninke people

Serahuli

Hoddu Carved wooden-trough resonator[22] Fan bridge.[22] Senegal[23]

Mali[22]

Guinea

Guinea-Bissau

Senegambia

Fula or Fulbe or Peul people[23][22]
Tukulóor[22]
 
Mali. Hoddu of the Fulani.
 
Three Fulani griots with hoddu in the service of King Sambala of Médine, Mali, a village in the Kayes region, 1890. Photo by Joannès Barbier
 
Hoddu in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Fan bridge is missing; slot for bridge visible at end of stick.
 
Line drawing of MET's Hoddu. Fan bridge is visible.
Kambre[24]

Kambreh[24]

Boat shaped wooden resonator, hide soundboard secured by lacing on bottom of instrument, 2 horsehair strings, dimensions about 52 cm long by 7 cm wide.[25] Also 3 strings.[24] Sierra Leone Fulbe people[24] Example photo at museum.[25]
Kerona Fulbe people of Futa Jallon
Koni

Kontingo

Nkoni

Ngoni

Variants of Ngoni include Ngoni (small, high pitch), Ngoni Ba (smaller, lower pitch), Bass Ngoni (even larger, lowest pitch) Mande, Mandinka, Bambara
 
Cheick Hamala Diabaté
 
Bassekou Kouyate (Griot) playing Ngoni
 
Guinea. Mandinka people. Probable Kontigo
 
Ngoni Ba. Fan bridge is covered with electrical tape, sound amplifier installed.
 
Bambara instrument.
Molo Djerma people

Songhay people

Teharden

terhardent

three strings Tamashek

Kel Tamasheq (translation: veiled people)

Tuareg people

Tashigalt or takamba music. Paired with calabash (large calabash used for drum).[26]

 
The Tuareg griot Amano and members of his family. Griots with tehardent (tamachek) or three-stringed ngoni (stringed instrument) - Tin Aicha, Timbuktu, Mali.
 
Three Tuareg griots, one with a white cheche (turban), playing a terhardent with two other griots with black cheches during the New Year's Eve. Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
 
A griot with 4-string tehardent and second young musician outside on mats between their audience. Refugee camp, Mberra, Mauritania
Tidinit Four strings. Mauritania

Moors, both (Beidane and Haratin). Muslims established emirates in south of country, in about the 18th century AD.[27] Griots of indigenous peoples employed for praise singing of Moors and to disparage their enemies.[27] Tidinit borrowed along with griot customs.[27] Today tidinit used in Azâwân music.[27]

Griot music is called azawan, singing accompanied by tidinit, ardin and tbal kettledrum.[28] A form of music in which male and female griots may play together.

Iggawin is the name of the lowest caste, in which musicians are part. These are the musicians associated with the tidinit.[Pestcoe, Emergence of the Griot Lutes]

Example of a figure-eight shaped tidinit in the Quai Brandily Museum.[29] Example photo at Philharmonie de Paris.[27]
Xalam

Khalam

Halam

Wolof people
 
Senegal, Wolof Xalamkat holding his xalam.
 
Wolof Griot With Xalam.
Dambararou Benin

Bariba people Traditional music includes "Griot music accompanied on the delicate dambararou lute". Other instruments include goge, gon and karou drums.[30]

 
Benin, ca. 1900-1930. Unnamed lute with calabash resonator, skin soundtable, wood handle and horsehair strings. Batoonu [sic] population. Baatonu is the Bariba language used by the Bariba people.

Non-griot lute

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Rice Coast The Rice Coast of Africa is the region on the Atlantic Coast, from Senegal to Liberia.[31] Many of its residents were enslaved in the United States because of their knowledge in growing rice.[31] The Rice Coast has lutes that may be closely related to the American banjo.[32]

Spike Lutes See also Music of Guinea-Bissau, Balanta people


The spike lutes of the Rice Coast have resonators made from gourds, with handles that poke through the side walls on both sides.[32] The handles or round necks are fretless, made from a papyrus stalk.[32] Typically they have 3 strings (a short drone string as on a banjo, and two melody strings).[32] The strings are attached at the neck with tuning rings and pass over the skin soundtable (tacked across the cut opening in the top of the gourd).[32] The strings pass over an upright bridge that sits directly on top of the soundtable's skin surface.[32]

Gourd resonator bodies are usually round, but a variant called entofer uses an oval or tear-shaped gourd, also described as "bulbous".[32]


-cylindrical bridge

-either full-spike lute or semi-spike lute

-folk lutes of western Sudan region

-folk and non-Griot artesian lutes of central Sudan region

-non-griot, artesian and folk of Western Sudan

-non-griot, artesian and folk of Central Sudan

Sudan region, divided into:

Western Sudan subregion: Mauritania, Mali, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea
Central Sudan subregion: Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon






Rather than reflect a detailed study and knowledge of African lutes, the following table reflects the travels of individuals to Africa and their observations and their collections in museums. As such, the table cannot be considered either complete or authoritative. No systematic study of African lutes is available in 2024.


Names and variations Description Ethnic connections, regions Pictures Pictures
Djiguendi algara Semi-spike lute. 3 strings.[33] Similar to kologo. Metal attachments on neck rattle as this lute is played.[33] Chad
Dekakire Arab people[33]
 Photo on the album Anthologie de la Musique du Tchad[34]
Garaya Semi-spike lute

2 strings, gourd body.

Cameroon[23]

Nigeria (see photo)

Chad

Fulani people[23][35]
Bororo
 Picture of a semi-spike garaya or gurmiru, from the Peul Bororo culture of Chad (Peul is French for Fulani, Bororo is a nomadic subgroup of the Fulani).[36]
 
Garaya encountered in Jalingo. The player attributed it to the Fulani people. This example is a full-spike lute with two strings, gourd body and hide soundboard. The bottom instrument is laid face down, with a rectangular soundhole cut into the gourd. Unfinished instruments being taken to be finished.
Garaya Cameroon
Peul people

Garaya has been generalized to cover many 2-string lutes among the Peul.

 
This garaya is the same as that played by the Fulani of Diamare (North Cameroon). The version of the instrument was considered by researchers to be related to the Hausa k'wamsa lute.[37]
 


Garaya
Boddu
 Cameroon
Peul people
 
Boddu, (the beautiful, in Peul)
Garaya
Gigo am (My Beloved in Peul language)
 Cameroon
Peul people
 
Gigo am (My Beloved in Peul language)


Garaya
Mukaandu
Gurmi
 Cameroon
Peul people
 
Gurmi (Hausa language) or Mukaandu (Peul language)


Garaya
Pouttéji

Puttiji

Cameroon
Peul people
 
Pouttéji, (those covered with buttons, Peul language)
Garaya
Nandudi
 Cameroon
Peul people

Nandudi means "those that look alike" (Peul).

 
Nandudi (Peul language)
Garaya
Soudido
 Cameroon

Peul people

 
Souido, side view
 
Luthier and musician Alfa Barry, with one of his garaya lutes in a travel bag.
 
Soudido (the Silent, Peul language)
 
Souido, back view
Garaya
Tchakadjo
 
Tchakadjo, back side
 
Tchakadjo (the one in the middle, (Peul language)


Garaya
Tchouddido
 Cameroon
Peul people
 
Tchouddido (one that is covered, Peul language)


Garaya[38] Semi-spike lute.[38]

2 strings.[38][39] Oval wooden soundbox, total length about 50 cm.[39] Duiker hide or goatskin covering.[39] Top has long metal attachment with jingles.[39] Plucked with "diamond-shaped pick of stiff cowhide."[39]

Central Sudan
Nigeria[38]
Niger[23]
Hausa people[38]
 Example illustration on postage stamp.[40]
Babbar garaya (big garaya)[41]

Komo[42]

Semi-spike lute.[41]

2 strings.[41] Oval shaped.[43] Lute constructed of gourd for the soundbox, skin soundboard with cylindrical bridge, about 75 cm long. Strip of metal with metal-ring jingles attached to top of handle adds another 22 cm to length.[42] Cow or rhinoceros hide pick.[42]

Central Sudan
Nigeria.[41][42]
Hausa people.[41][42] Played for entertainment and religion, the "bori spirit possession ceremonies. Formerly used in ceremonies to praise hunters.[42]
 Photo of a probable babbar garaya at the Quai Branley Museum; dimensions 84 x 23 x 16 cm, 2 strings, oval shaped, Hausa people.[44]
Gullum[45]

gulom[45][46]

Full-spike lute.[45] 3 strings.[45]

Body a "hemispherical calabash", cowhide soundboard laced to the instrument.[46] Nylon stings.[46] Horsehair strings traditional.[46] Longest string tuned first, then middle string ("tuned to a 4th), then the shortest (tuned to an octave of the first string).[46]

Chad[45]

Cameroon[45]

Northern Nigeria[47]

Kotoko people[45][46]
Mser people
Moria people
Bara people
Makari people
Kilba people[47]

Played by men for entertainment or traditionally to "hunt spirits."[46] Played alongside a half-calabash (percussion, hit with two sticks).[46]

Photo of Alhaji Amara Sahone, "a Jare, the Serehule word for the West African singer/historian" playing a gullum; c. 1970 postcard photo from northern Nigeria.[48][47]
Gurmi[49][50]

Ngurumi[50][51]

Kumbo[49]

Full-spike lute.[52]

Body is a half calabash.[53] The handle or neck passes through both sides of the calabash resonator.[52] Sound hole in the top of the instrument. Cylindrical bridge[49] rests on skin soundboard. Strung with 2 strings that are tied on leather straps on the neck, pass over the bridge and resonator and are tied to the end of the handle below the resonator.

Musician plucks the strings and strikes a metal slug on the body with the copper ring on his right hand.[53]

Central Sudan
Nigeria
Niger
Hausa, Northern Nigeria.[54]
Toubou people[51]

Versions in 1930 had metal jingles attached [Gurmy, Groves vol2]. These illustrated in photo from 1950s at Smithsonian.[55][56]

 
Diffa, Niger. Man playing a gurmi.
 
Gurmi, as illustrated by P. G. Harris in his article, Notes on Drums and Musical Instruments Seen in Sokoto Province, Nigeria, 1932
 
Eastern Nigeria. Hausa musician playing a gurmi.
 
Tesker, eastern Niger Republic. Malam Maman Barka playing an ngurumi.
Gurumi[57]

Gouroumi[23]

Carved-wooden trough resonating body[57]. Cylinder bridge.[57] Niger
Dosso people[57]
Maouri people[23]
Mawri people[57]
gzöpöli[58] Semi-spike lute. Two strings. Gourd Body.

Handle is threaded through the soundboard, the same as the kakanza, kologo and kuban. This threading is a detail that ties these particular instruments to the Egyptian lutes.[58] Jingles on end of lute (same style as the Sersar on the guembri lute.

Nigeria
Bana people
 Picture in Die materielle kulture by Wente-Lucas.[59]
Kaburu[60]

Kabulu

Semi-spike lute[60]

3 strings.[61] Large lute (up to 100 cm long) with metal jingles on the top of the handle adding extra length.[61] Cylinder bridge wrapped in or constructed of leather cut from soundtable hole and rolled, sits under strings to lift them from soundtable.

Central Sudan
Nigeria.[61]
Gbagyi (also called Gwari)[61]

Used in kabulu or kaburu music. Originally used for ritual music.[61] Played in multi-lute ensemble, up to 8 lutes together.[61] This was originally an instrument of the Kuta, Nigeria area Gbagyi, and has spread.[61]

Photo of Kaburu lutes in 1969, instruments with an oval body. That year a Kabulu/Abwagyi Musical cultural Group from Kuta, Nigeria performed at the All-Africa-Cultural Festival held in Algiers.[62][63]

Photo of Nigerian musicians, circa 1916 (possibly as late as 1930) playing Kaburu style lutes, accompanied by goje fiddles.[64] Photo of Dr. Adamu WALO, also called Bwalo Shattan Gwari (stage name). Dr. Walo is shown holding an oval kaburu.[65]

 
Nigeria, Niger State, Minna. Gbagyi instrument called the kabulu.[66][67] This photo is used online to represent the Hausa people.
 
Uyo, Akwa Iborn, Nigeria. Members of the Borno State contingent at the closing ceremony of the National Festival of Arts and Culture play in parade, with kaburu lutes, a goge fiddle and a hornpipe or clarinet. Like the Algerian guembri, this instrument has a sersar (Moroccan Arabic word) on the end of the handle.
Kakanza Semi-spike lute. Two strings.

Handle is threaded through the soundboard, the same as the gzöpöli, kologo and kuban. This threading is a detail that ties these particular instruments to the Egyptian lutes.[58] Jingles on end of lute (same style as the Sersar on the guembri lute.

Nigeria
Lamang people
 Picture in Die materielle kulture by Wente-Lucas.[68]
Keleli[23] Two variants are found in the Quai Branley museum:

Full-spike lute[69]

Semi-spike lute[70]

Lute made with gourd (or wood or metal bowl) hemispherical body (about 20 cm diameter) and skin top, wood handle, 2 or 3 tendon strings (modern strings may be nylon).[23][71] Oval wooden soundbox, total length about 50 cm.[39]


Nigeria[23]

Chad[23]

Libya[70]

Toubou people[23]
Kidi people[23]
 Picture of a full-spike keleli at the Quai Brandley Museum[69]

Picture of a semi-spike keleli at the Quai Brandley Museum.[70]

 
Drawing of a semi-spike keleli. At the soundhole, the skin is rolled up around a stick or peg.[39] Strings tied to the sharp end peeking through the soundhole go over the rolled up skins and stick, holding them in place.[72] The rolled skin and stick act as a bridge.[72] The neck is a round stick, thinner than drawn. Strings run up the neck and are tied to straps, themselves tied around the neck.[39]



Kologo[73] Semi-spike lute. Cylinder-shaped bridge. May use U-shaped bridge, like ekonting.

Handle threaded through holes in skin soundboard, in manner similar to Egyptian lutes. Also holes in soundboard as Egyptian and some other modern lutes (such as lothar).

Central Sudan
Ghana
Burkina Faso
 
Ghana. King Ayisoba playing a kologo.
 
Ghana. Atongo Zimba playing a kologo. U-shaped bridge is visible at bottom of lute.
 
The kologo is threaded into the soundboard multiple times. Cylinder bridge visible above the soundhole through which strings attach to the handle.
Kontigi[74]

Kuntigi[74]

Semi-spike lute

One string lute, plucked.[74] Cylinder bridge, rolled up in skin cut from soundhole. Modern lutes use a oval shaped sardine can for the soundbox. Vulture's feather quill used for plectrum.[74]

Central Sudan
Niger[74]
Nigeria[74]
Hausa people[74]
Songhay people[74]
 
Calabash bodied kontigi. Earlier kontigis, used the calabash, while later kontigis have a metal body.[74]
 
Picture of a kontigi, a one string African lute of the Hausa people, made from sardine can. Metal strip with jingles attached at top of handle.
 
Kontigi, as illustrated by P. G. Harris in his 1932 article Notes on Drums and Musical Instruments Seen in Sokoto Province, Nigeria.
Kuban[75]

Kubangu[75]

Semi-spike lute.

Two-strings with a gourd body.[75] The handle is threaded through the skin soundboard multiple times.[76]

Togo
Bassari people.[75]
 
A lute of the Bassari people, probably the kuban which has two strings and a gourd body.[76] Illustrated in 1901 in the book Die afrikanischen musikinstrumente by Bernhard Ankermann[76]
kwamsa[77][78][79]

komsa[78]

khamsa[78]

kwafsa[80]

kwabsa[80]

A semi-spike lute[78]

2-strings, a gourd body, and cylindrical bridge. [78] Large.[80]

The body is a calabash, about 15 inches long.[79] The handle or neck is made of hardwood, about 3 feet long.[79] The handle enters the skin at the top of the calabash and is threaded through, coming out about 2/3 down soundboard and reentering the skin.[79] The end of the handle rests on a crossbar under the skin.[79] A cylinder bridge sits on top of the skin pressed against the crossbar.[79] The metal jingle at the top of the neck is about 12 inches long.[79]

Nigeria, Niger.[78]
Hausa people.[78]
Arewa people of Sokoto province[79]
Zaberma people of Sokoto province[79]

Traditionally used by "young men to serenade their lovers."[79] Modern use in Bori ceremonies.[79]

 
Kwamsa, as illustrated by P. G. Harris in the Notes on Drums and Musical Instruments Seen in Sokoto Province, Nigeria, 1932
 
Probable kwamsa. This instrument has a sheet metal plate with jingles attached to the handle's top. The cylinder bridge is missing on this instrument, or the crossbar acts as the cylinder bridge.
Molo (Hausa language

Mooloru (Fulani language)[81]

Semi-spike lute.

Usually 3 strings.[82] While same shape as xalam, has a cylindrical bridge instead of a fan-shaped bridge. Bridge wrapped in or constructed of leather cut from soundtable hole and rolled, sits under strings to lift them from soundtable.

Shortest string is a drone string, plays only one note.[83]

Central Sudan
Nigeria
Niger
Hausa people
Anaguta people[83]
Tiv people[84]

Plucked with thumb.[79] Used traditionally to praise chiefs.[79] Substitute for goje in bori ceremonies.[79]

 
Nigeria, Hausa people. Differs from Hoddu and Xalam; has cylindrical bridge. Xalam has fan bridge.
 
Nigeria, Hausa people. Back of lute.
Molo Full-spike lute, calabash resonating body, skin top, wooden handle Senegal
Fola (Fulbe, Soninke/Diawara)
 
Nigeria. Unknown tribe. Calabash body, 2 strings. Photographer called the instrument molo.
 
Nigeria. Molo with calabash body.
unnamed lute Semi-spike lute

From a photograph,[85] the Ncam people appear to use a semi-spike lute, similar to the kologo of Ghana and Burkina Faso. It has a calabash resonator and wooden handle and jingles on the end of the handle. The observer said it has 2 strings.[85] There are no pegs for the strings in the photo, so they are held in place with leather straps on the instrument's neck.[85]

Central Sudan
Togo
Ncam people.

The lute was observed to play the music or genre Kitamkpanbeeu – A piece using the traditional two-stringed guitar.[85]

Photo of Ncam man playing a lute in Bassar, Togo.[85]
Akonting[32] (English transliteration)

ekonting[32] (French transliteration}

folk lute of the Jola people, found in Senegal, Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau in West Africa
 
A member of the Diolas in Boucotte in Casamance (Senegal) playing the ekonting.
 
Akonting player in Bagaya
bunchundo[32] folk lute of the Manjak
kisinta[32]

kusunde[32]

folk lute of the Balanta[86]
busunde[32][86] folk lute of the Papel
 
Guinea, Papel people. Probable busunde.
ngopata[32][86] folk lute of the Bijago, Bijago Islands of Guinea Bissau.[86]

More information needed

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From DEKKMMA database

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  • Biegu Ghana, Dagomba people. Possibly used in local music forms such as "Nag Biegu" (dance), Nag Biegu Praises (meaning "ferocious wild bull", praise singing for a king of Dagbon in the late 1800s, Naa Abdulai), and Nag Biegu Verse-chorus.[87], 2 string lute, made of gourd with skin soundtable, wood handle, tendons, nylon strings and iron.[87]
  • Diéli (dyèli) Konou, Guinea, Malinké people
  • Dumbo, Nigeria, Hausa people
  • Egogo, Kenya, Kuria people, one string lute

Indonesian tradition

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  • Gabus, Comoros, carved bowl lute with carved handle, like or same as gambus. On side of Africa facing Indonesia/Malaysia.[DEKKMA databas]
  • Gabusi everyone on island, same as gabus DEKKMA databas

Ancient Egypt

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Lutes after addition of Nubia to Egypt in New Kingdom...Some depictions of lutes and harps in Egypt included the head of a goose, duck, falcon goddess or king on the head of the instrument.[7]

Similarly, trough zither from Africa sometimes include the sculpture of a person. The instrument has a voice, speaks and the sculpture implies it is a person.

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    Egyptian 18th Dynasty circa 1550 BC–1292 BC. - Two Musicians with lute and harp. The lute has 3 strings, indicated by the tassels made by tuning straps on the lute's end.
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    18th dynasty musicians playing zummâra double clarinet, lute and arched harp, circa c. 1422-1411 BCE
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    Lute player, tomb of Nakhtamun, TT 341, Sheikh Abd el-Qurna
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    :Egyptian lute, male musician, Rekhmire tt100
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    Painting of a lute player from an ostracon, Deir el-Medina. New Kingdom, 19th Dynasty, ca. 1292-1189 BC. Now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. JE 63805
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    Lute player, head of lute has bird head
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    lute has bird head. Nubian
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Coptic lutes

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History

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Outside influences

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African lutes have an unrecorded history which includes Egyptian nephir lutes, contact on the eastern shore with travelers and traders from Yemen, India and Indonesia/Malaysia, Egyptian trade and wars with the nearby Middle-East, conquests by Arab Muslims and further conquest by Amazigh (Berber) tribes. After the fall of Islamic Andalusia, traditions from Analusia noved into Northern Africa.

Later conquests of Africa by Europeans and then trade in modern times have displaced traditional instruments, bringing in the Western acoustic guitar, but it has also spurred local development of instruments such as the ramkie and Algerian mandole. Also in modern times, the banjo has returned to Africa, having been developed by African slaves and fused into western music.

Internal influences

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Internally, there have been African kingdoms. These include ancient Egypt, the Ghana Empire, Pre-Imperial Mali, the Mali Empire, the Songhai Empire, Jolof Empire, Kaabu Empire and Fula Empire. There was internal displacement of people in slave-trade networks; in tran-Saharan trade, people moved between the Mali Empire and Northwest Africa—modern Morocco (Marrakeck), Algieria and Tunisia. Mali connected to the east coast of Africa at Suakin. Egypt connected down the east coast to Mogadishu. Along the Sudan region, an East-West belt of land south of the Sahera) was a route of agriculture and markets and long-distance trade. It was the first region Islam "flowered" south of the Sahara.

Interconnecting with this trade,—east, west in the Sudan region and north, south from Mali to the Mediterranean coast— were a group of traders, the Amazigh on camels.

Slave trade

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See: Trans-Saharan trade, Sahelian kingdoms, Muslim conquest of the Maghreb and Islamization of the Sudan region

Pre-Islamic slave trade

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There has existed since at least the 5th century B.C. a north-south slave trade in Africa. There was a route from Egypt down into Nubia called the Darb al-Arbaʿīn trade route. Further west was the Tripoli-Murzuk-Lake Chad route, consisting of the Ghadames Road, which ran from the Niger River to Tripoli, and the Garamantean Road running from Lake Chad north to Murzuk in Southwest Lybia. In the west the trade led to Morocco using the Walata Road from the Senegal River and the Taghaza Trail, from the Niger River.

A community called the Garamantes controlled the north south trade to Libya as early as 1500 B.C. They engaged in the Trans-Saharan slave trade, being recorded in the 5th century B.C. by Herodutus as raiding south for slaves, and Romans recorded their raids as reaching Lake Chad in the 1st century A.D. They also raided Niger and Chad for slaves in the 1st century A.D. In the 5th century A.D., Roman Carthage was trading in slaves across the Sahara.

Amazigh people

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1996. Tehardent, an Amazigh lute, photographed in in Tin Aicha, Timbuktu, Mali. The instrument is a long wooden bodied instrument with a skin soundboard, wooden neck or handle, with 3 strings. The bridge is attached to the handle at the soundhole, unlike the guembri, which has a footed or u-shaped bridge sitting on top of the soundtable.
 
Circa 1100. In the book Music and Musical Instruments in the World of Islam, authors Jean Jenkins and Paul Rovsing Olsen pointed out the influence of Islamic music and musical instruments on European music.[88] This image shows the influence of Islamic fiddles on European music.[88] The style of lutes and fiddles in the Commentary on the Apocalypse manuscripts reflects the instruments brought into Spain with the invasion by Berber and later Arab/Persian Muslims. The picture was Mozarabic, or from former Al-Andalus. The authors did not differentiate between the Arab-Persian Islamic cultures and the African Berber culture, which was newly converted to Islam when it initiated the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula. Berbers linked African culture to Mediterranean and former Roman culture along the coast of Africa, before the invasion of the Iberian Peninsula. Spain itself had vestiges of Roman culture including music, under the Germanic Visigoths, when the Berbers invaded.

See: Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, Berbers in Al-Andalus

Instruments similar to the tehardent, the modern guembri and the medieval cythara
 
2011 A.D. Modern guembri player, Majid Bekkas from Morocco, in concert in Denmark.
 
Circa 925-968 A.D. Mozarabic art developed by the Hispanic Christians in Al-Andalus or the Kingdom of León.
 
Circa 820 A.D., Paris. Another style of cythara from the Stuttgart Psalter, showing a footed bridge, similar to the guembri's. The neck on this lute appears to be carved, part of the body.
Amazigh soldiers under the Umayyad commander Tariq ibn Ziyad conquered the Iberian peninsula, invading about 711 A.D. setting up Al-Andalus and joining it to Islamic Northern Africa.[89] During the 8th and 9th centuries, many musicians and artists from across the Islamic world flocked to Iberia bringing the non-African instruments, the oud and rabab.[90] A music school would be established in the Córdoba.[91] Amazigh people had their own musical lutes as well such as the tehardent (Griot lute of the Amazigh, used to sing praises of leaders). As Christians retook the peninsula (finished in the 15th century A.D.), Muslims retreated to the Maghreb in North Africa, taking their Andalusi classical music with them. Cytharas depicted in Mozarabic and Carolingian art have both similarities and differences to modern Guembris. They are similar in size and shape, often with three strings and (speculatively) depict stick handled lutes with a wood-bowl resonator covered with a skin top. Differences between these lutes and the African guembris include pegheads, no visible soundholes, and strings anchored by protrusions at the bottom of the lute's body. Andalusi music today is played on ouds and kwitras, while guembris and lothars play music of the enslaved Gnawa mixed with the Berber/Amazigh traditions.

There has historically been a tendency to gloss over the ethnic makeup of the Muslims who first conquered the Iberian peninsula. They have been labeled Moors and Berbers, a word popularly said to be linked to barbarian. They called themselves Amazigh, and they came to dominate trade in northern Africa from the Mediterranean, across the Saraha desert to the Sahel, east and west from the east coast to the west coast, and they merged the cultures of the Iberian peninsula to Northern Africa in the 8th century A.D.

Amazigh peoples appear to have acquired the camel by the 3rd century A.D. They developed trade routes from Morocco to the Niger bend, and from Tunisia to Lake Chad. Following the 7th century Muslim conquest of Egypt and the 8th-century Muslim conquest of North Africa, Arab Muslims began leading trade expeditions into Sub-Saharan Africa, first towards Nubia, and later across the Sahara into West Africa. Much of this contact was motivated by interest in trans-Saharan trade, particularly the slave trade.

The Amazigh spread Islam across North Africa along the Mediterranean coast in the 8th century A.D. and across the Sudan region or Sahel. There were also took part in the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula in Europe to found Andalusia. They interconnected this wide group of areas with their version of Islamic culture.

Just as the lute (in the barbat, ud and gambus) traveled with Muslims by sea and camel from Asia to Africa, the Berbers carried African lutes with them. Their own lutes are three and four string wood bodied Griot lutes called teharden and tidinit. They bear resemblance to the guembri, being of similar shape and size, semi-spike lute style, with a similar number of strings tied to the wooden handle.

The Amazigh were nomadic clans who crossed Africa east and west, along the Sahel. They also were able to travel north-south across the Sahara desert. Using today's standards of judgement, they were both legitimate traders and marauders. They were traders, transporting goods such as wool south to north. They were marauders as well, carrying sub-Saharan African people as slaves across the desert. The people they enslaved brought their "inherited musical forms" into the "new cultural contexts" of their lives in the north.[8] West African traditions of spiritual and animist ritual combined with Islamic Sufism to create modern Gnawa music.[8] Stories in the music preserve the circumstances of the slavery: "“Tied in sacks they brought us. In the camel bags, and they sold us in the wool market. May God pardon them. They took us from our country. They parted us from our parents. They brought us a last to the wool suq and they sold us, children, far from our country."[92] Another story among the Gnawa recalls a West-African father, Bou-Saadia, looking for his kidnapped daughter, crossing the desert to find her and live near her in her life as a slave.[93]

As early as the 3rd century A.D., "Berberized" people lived in the Sahara.[92] The largest wave of the in the north from Sub-Saharan Africa arrived in the 15th to 16th centuries.[92] Joining these enslaved people were a wave of about 200,000 Muslims who crossed to North Africa from Granada, when it fell to Spain in the 15th century[94] As well, Jewish people were banned from the new Christian kingdoms in Spain, and in the 15th century Jewish refugees also settled in North Africa, and their music also blended into Gnawa.[8]

Mali court

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Al-Umari and Ibn Battuta reported in the 14th century A.D., of the presence of lutes in the West African kingdom of Mali, court of Mansa Suleman. Al Umari mentioned the gunibri, which Ken A. Gourlay presumed was an ancestor of the modern 2-string gurmi and 3-string gurumi of the Hausa people.[95] He also considered the kanabir written about by Ibn Battuta to be ancestral to these two modern lutes.[95]

The guembri/guinbri of the Gnawa people is supposed to have come to North Africa from slaves from the sub-Sahara. The word is very similar to Al-Umari's gunibri.

Scholarship

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Lutes have been played parts of Africa for millennia. Historical examples include Ancient Egypt (c. 1850 BC) and the Mali Empire (c. 14th century AD).[1] In spite of the possible history of the instrument there, musical historians have yet to create an extensive history of the lute in Africa.[1] Instead, historians have relied on early musicologists generalizations; Henry Farmer, Curt Sachs and Bernhard Ankermann generalized that African lutes were "are all essentially the same instrument".[1, page 1 and footnote 2] In this view, all lutes could be labeled gunbrī or gunibrī in spite of differences in body style, size and number of strings, in spite of different cultural uses (folk use versus professional Griots), and in spite of different names applied in different languages.[1]

In 1996, musical scholar Eric Charry called attention to a trend toward repudiation, questioning and refining of that assumption.[1] Charry focused on lutes of West Africa, but he noted that study needs to take into account cultures, tribes, regions, design features and history.[1] Cameroon musicologist Francis Bebey included the need to consider an instrument's cultural purpose (to speak or accompany speech rather than singing), language (different pitches in spoken language change meanings of words; musical instruments speak because they can mimic those pitches, songs in African languages are speech completely driven by pitches of words in language).[2] Bebey also brought up a spiritual or religious significance of African instruments: they speak, therefore in some cultures they may be treated with respect as beings.[2]

In 1996 Charry published a list of lutes, divided into similar physical attritutes, by name and culture or tribe.[1] That list was expanded further in 2018 by Shlomo Pestcoe and Greg C. Adams, who were researching the origins of the American banjo.[3]

Another banjo scholar's work that touches on specific African instruments and uncovering their history in the Mediterranean and Americas is Kristina R. Gaddy; Gaddy's research covers blending of African traditions (under European and American slave systems), the instruments' role in African religion as a conduit for spirits to speak, and the conflict between European Christianity and African religions over spiritual-device lutes in the hands of slaves.[4][5]

Chuck Levy interviewed musicians in Africa, revealing how music has changed between generations, how materials in instruments have changed, ritual songs, songs for entertainment, affects of language and dialects on instrument names, and playing techniques.[Banjo Roots, ch5] Nick Bamber explored W African tuning systems in Senegal.[Banjo Roots, ch4]

Bridges

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  • Fan shaped [1, p6]
  • Cylindrical [1][banjo roots p 223]
  • bipedal [banjo roots p 221]
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Notes

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  1. ^ [From German Wikipedia:] The Stambali, also Stambeli, is the name of a religious ceremony in Tunisia that is part of a possession cult, and the associated style of music. The dancers, mostly female, reach a ritualized trance state, which is mainly triggered by the playing of a plucked lute (gimbri) and several hand clappers (qaraqib). This evokes and appeases the possessive spirits.

References

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  1. ^ looping, rhythmic hypnotism, designed to induce trance-like states where believers can follow internal routes to self-knowledge What is Sufism? Why is music so important to the Sufis?
  2. ^ "Hajhouj MNMDJ-13-10=". Musées royaux d'Art et d'Histoire
  3. ^ a b Langlois, Tony (1998). "The Gnawa of Oujda: Music at the Margins in Morocco". The World of Music. 40 (1). VWB - Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung. the word might mean an informal musical get-together...I have also found it used to describe a kind of dance in which participants become entranced...and for the trance itself.
  4. ^ Gastaut, Yvan. "The Guembri: traditional musical instrument". Accompanied by Qraqeb (metal castanets) and a big drum, the Guembri is played by the "Maâlem" (master), to follow the adepts 'trance during nighttime rituals called "lila", mix of fun and therapy. The trance is supposed to allow the adept to remove all afflictions.
  5. ^ Sum, Maisie (April 2012). Music of the Gnawa of Morocco: Evolving Spaces and Times (Thesis). Vancouver, British Columbia: The Faculty of Graduate Studies (Music) The University of British Columbia (Vancouver). pp. 17, 66–67. The entire derdeba [lila] rests on the gumbri that evokes the genies and directs them on a fantastic cavalcade marked by the qarqab. The genies come at the call of the instrument and the bared feet of the moqaddem when he dances. [A moqaddem refers to a ritual officiant who is often a seer-therapist and/or medium. A m'allem is a master musican, who is also male.] A good maalem and a good moqaddem are "hot" people that "induce ascent". Their quality is measured by the number of adepts that fall in trance and are possessed as soon as they begin.
  6. ^ "Watch: Tunisia's Stambeli Ritual (COSMOS Scene Report) Friday Mar 29th 2024 COSMOS". Le Guess Who. The ritual dance practice of Stambeli is a centuries old method to induce trance-like states through sound...a religious ritual mostly connected to Tunisia, but its roots go back to Mali and Niger, from where enslaved people were brought to Tunisia...The musical part of Stambeli is played with the "gumbri" – a traditional Tunisian string instrument – over the rhythm of the "chkackek".
  7. ^ Richard S. Harrell (ed.). "Sersar". A Dictionary Of Moroccan Arabic Moroccan English & English Moroccan. sersa pl. sraser bell (as in a telephone, doorbell, clock, etc)
  8. ^ a b c d e Warner, Gary (3 September 2020). "Gnawa Guembri: Resonance of a lost past". Garland Magazine. The third acoustic component of the guembri sound is a jingly rattling effected by the sersal, a thin, flexible metal plate fitted into a hole at the top of the neck. Often shaped like a stylised flame, the plate is encircled by rings or tiny bells that quiver in vibrational sympathy with the player's movements...insect-like buzz...
  9. ^ Pillault, Théophile (15 May 2023). "Stambeli 2.0: electrifying Tunisian ritual music". PAM (Pan African Music. Stambeli, one of the last Tunisian rituals of possession....Also called yenna, this master of ceremony is at the center of the orchestra. His instrument – the gombri – governs the ritual
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i D'Hérouville, Pierre. "Le lotar". akhaba.com. Archived from the original on 3 October 2013. Nowadays, we therefore call these pear-shaped lutes with a skin table, with a length varying between 50 and 130 centimeters, lotar. Below this size, we will rather speak of suisdi (or suissen), a small two-stringed lute, persisting for example in malhoun orchestras.
  11. ^ "Instruments". The Master Musicians of Jajouka led by Bachir Attar. [Note: This variant played by Sufi musicians in Jajouka.]
  12. ^ "Africa". Atlas of Plucked Instruments. A larger version, which is called loutar (or lotar - see under), is used in the Middle Atlas region by the Amazigh imdyazn (bards).
  13. ^ "Master Musicians of Joujouka". Joujouka. drone-based music...energetic, frenetic sound....sufi trance music...a form of trance music which is used for healing
  14. ^ "Africa". Atlas of Plucked Instruments. mall gunbri, with 3 nylon strings...body could be made like the gunbri, from hollowed out wood...[or] tortoise shell...fakroun or fakrun (= "tortoise")...The better quality ones - resembling more the proper gunbri - are sometimes called suissen
  15. ^ a b "Morocco 'Gunibri'". WORLD MUSIC, LLC. The Hartenberger World Music Collection of Historical Instruments. The gunibri (gunbri) is a small 3-string long-neck spike lute used in Moroccan music...this one has a tortoise shell resonator. It is called fakroun or fakrun ("tortoise")...This gunibri is sometimes called suissen
  16. ^ Pestcoe, Shlomo. "Griot Lutes". ngoni (Mande) (also nkoni, koni, konting, kontingo, etc.)
  17. ^ a b Charry, Eric (March 1996). "Plucked Lutes in West Africa: an Historical Overview". The Galpin Society Journal. 49. The Galpin Society.
  18. ^ a b Pestcoe, Shlomo (1 February 2009). "Griot Lutes". Shlolomusic.com.
  19. ^ a b Pestcoe, Shlomo (1 February 2009). "The Emergence of the Griot Lutes". Shlolomusic.com.
  20. ^ "208 - AFRIQUE - SOUDAN - HAUT-NIGER - Chef Malinké". [text on postcard:] 1089 Afrique occidentale - Soudan —- HAUTE NIGER Chef Malinké
  21. ^ Charry, Eric (March 1996). "Plucked Lutes in West Africa: an Historical Overview". The Galpin Society Journal. 49. The Galpin Society. Griot lutes include the Mande koni complex (i.e. Maninka koni, Xasonke koni, Bambara ngoni, and Mandinka kontingo), Wolof xalam, Soninke gambare, Fulbe hoddu, and Moorish tidini. They are all wooden-trough lutes with fan-shaped bridges, and are all essentially the same instrument with minor variations, primarily based on size.
  22. ^ a b c d e Charry, Eric (March 1996). "Plucked Lutes in West Africa: an Historical Overview". The Galpin Society Journal. 49. The Galpin Society: 8, 23.
  23. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m <"Advanced sea rch for musical instruments". DEKKMMA Project (Digitalisatie van het Etnomusicologisch Klankarchief van het Koninklijk Museum voor Midden-Afrika). [note: This is a database. Search under the advanced search option for the category "chorodophone" and the type "lute"]
  24. ^ a b c d Pestcoe, Shlomo; Adams, Greg C. "3 List of West African Plucked Spike Lutes". In Robert B. Winnans (ed.). Banjo Roots and Branches. p. 48.
  25. ^ a b "Kambre; spike fiddle". Horniman Museum and Gardens.
  26. ^ "Al Bilali Soudan: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert". NPR Music. the band is a torch-bearer of the quintessentially Tamasheq music style called tashigalt or takamba, which is shaped by a continuous exchange between the three-stringed tehardent (a kind of lute, also known as ngoni or tidinit in other areas) accompanied by percussive rhythm of the calabash.
  27. ^ a b c d e "Azâwân music from Mauritania". Philharmonie de Paris.
  28. ^ World Music Central https://worldmusiccentral.org/world-music-resources/musician-biographies/mauritanian-music/. The music of the griots or troubadours of Mauritania is called Azawan, and is a truly scholarly form of music. It follows strict theory and is played by professional musicians who have undergone a long and specialist training. The songs are accompanied by three instruments: the ardin harp, a women's instrument made of a half-calabash and has eleven or fourteen strings; the tidnit, a four-stringed lute played exclusively by men; and the tbal kettledrum, a hemispherical drum made from a hollowed-out piece of wood that can reach a size of 1m in diameter. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Text "Mauritanian Music" ignored (help); line feed character in |quote= at position 227 (help)
  29. ^ "Luth". Vernacular name: Tidinit Geography: Africa – West Africa – Mauritania – Tagant (region) – Tidjikja Culture: Africa – Idouaich ; Africa – Moors Date: early 20th century Materials and techniques: Wood, lambskin, leatherMade by local artisans. Dimensions and weight: 66 x 15 x 10 cm, 461 g {{cite web}}: line feed character in |quote= at position 99 (help)
  30. ^ "Bariba Music". Retrieved 14 September 2024. [note: advertisement for recordings made by Radio France.]
  31. ^ a b Opala, Joseph A. "The Gullah: Rice, Slavery, and the Sierra Leone-American Connection". Yale MacMillan Center, Gilder Leherman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition. Retrieved 30 August 2024. The white plantation owners purchased slaves from various parts of Africa, but they greatly preferred slaves from what they called the "Rice Coast" or "Windward Coast"—the traditional rice-growing region of West Africa, stretching from Senegal down to Sierra Leone and Liberia.
  32. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Pestcoe, Shlomo (1 February 2009). "The Akonting & Other Folk Lutes of West Africa's "Rice Coast"". Shlolomusic.com.
  33. ^ a b c Duvelle, Charles. Anthologie de la Musique du Tchad. Ocora. [note: Series of records; this is from OCR 38 populations islamisées]
  34. ^ Duvelle, Charles. Anthologie de la Musique du Tchad. Ocora. [note: Photo of Djiguendi algara by Charles Duvelle.
  35. ^ Pestcoe, Shlomo; Adams, Greg C. "3 List of West African Plucked Spike Lutes -". In Robert B. Winnans (ed.). Banjo Roots and Branches. pp. 47–48. Semi-Spike Lutes...garaya [plural garayaaru, garayaaji] (Fulani [Fulbe]: Cameroon) (two strings; gourd body)
  36. ^ "Luth". Common name: Gurmiru or Garaya Geography: Africa – Central Africa – Chad – Mayo-Kébbi – Pala Culture: Africa – Peul Bororo Date: before 1973 Materials and techniques: Wood, leather, nylon Dimensions and weight: 58 x 11 x 9 cm, 112 g...Inventory number 71.1973.45.74
  37. ^ Veit Erlmann (1983). "Notes on Musical Instruments among the Fulani of Diamare (North Cameroon)". African Music. 6 (3). International Library of African Music: 23–24. Figure 8
  38. ^ a b c d e Pestcoe, Shlomo; Adams, Greg C. "3 List of West African Plucked Spike Lutes -". In Robert B. Winnans (ed.). Banjo Roots and Branches. pp. 47–49. Semi-Spike Lutes...garaya [plural garayu] (Hausa: Nigeria) (two strings)
  39. ^ a b c d e f g h Gourlay, K. A. (1984). "Garaya". In Sadie Stanley (ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Vol. 2. London: MacMillan Press. p. 25. Cite error: The named reference "GroveGaraya" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  40. ^ "niger.. 35f république du niger.instrument de musique : garaya (haoussa) oblitéré" [niger.. 35f republic of niger. musical instrument: garaya (hausa) cancelled.] (in French). [note: This is a stamp from Niger, showing the Garaya (Haoussa)]
  41. ^ a b c d e Pestcoe, Shlomo; Adams, Greg C. "3 List of West African Plucked Spike Lutes -". In Robert B. Winnans (ed.). Banjo Roots and Branches. pp. 47–49. Semi-Spike Lutes...komo [babbar garaya (literally "big garaya")] (Hausa: Nigeria) (two strings; gourd body)
  42. ^ a b c d e f Gourlay, K. A. (1984). "Komo". In Sadie Stanley (ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Vol. 2. London: MacMillan Press. p. 454.
  43. ^ "Komo". A Hausa-English dictionary by George Percy Bargery. 1934. komo. I. [ko/mo/] {n.m.}...3. The musical instrument called garaya, because oval in shape.
  44. ^ "Luth". Central Africa – Cameroon – Adamaoua – Tibati Culture: Africa – Hausa
  45. ^ a b c d e f g Pestcoe, Shlomo; Adams, Greg C. "3 List of West African Plucked Spike Lutes". In Robert B. Winnans (ed.). Banjo Roots and Branches. pp. 46–47. Full-Spike Lutes...gullum [gulom] (Kotoko [Mser, Moria, Bara, and Makari]: Chad; Cameroon) (three strings)
  46. ^ a b c d e f g h Brandily, Monique (1984). "Gulom". In Sadie Stanley (ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Vol. 2. London: MacMillan Press. p. 110.
  47. ^ a b c Banjo Roots: West Africa (30 April 2013). "untitled photograph". A traditional music-artisan playing the 3-string calabash-bodied 'gullum' of the Kilba (northern Nigeria). Photo postcard, Nigeria, c. 1970. (Collection of Shlomo Pestcoe)
  48. ^ "Alhaji Amara Sahone". 26 December 2012.
  49. ^ a b c Charry, Eric (March 1996). "Plucked Lutes in West Africa: an Historical Overview". The Galpin Society Journal. 49. The Galpin Society: 8, 25.
  50. ^ a b Gourlay, K. A. (1984). "Gurmi". In Sadie Stanley (ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Vol. 2. London: MacMillan Press. p. 11.
  51. ^ a b "Introducing Mamane Barka". World Music Network. [note: sleeve notes from album Introducing Mamane Barka.] As a nomad of the Toubou tribe, Malam Mamane Barka...born in Tesker, in the eastern part of the Niger Republic...also played the ngurumi, a traditional string instrument
  52. ^ a b Pestcoe, Shlomo; Adams, Greg C. "3 List of West African Plucked Spike Lutes". In Robert B. Winnans (ed.). Banjo Roots and Branches. pp. 46–47. Full-Spike Lutes...gurmi (Hausa: Nigeria) (two or three strings; gourd body)
  53. ^ a b Baker, Melvin. "The Harpist".
  54. ^ Visually Ethnographic Networks. "Salamatu Mai Gurmi [Female Hausa Gurmi Player]". YouTube. Retrieved 1 September 2024.
  55. ^ "Hunters' festival during 10th anniversary of independence celebration, Niamey, Niger".
  56. ^ "Hunters' festival during 10th anniversary of independence celebration, Niamey, Niger".
  57. ^ a b c d e Charry, Eric (March 1996). "Plucked Lutes in West Africa: an Historical Overview". The Galpin Society Journal. 49. The Galpin Society: 8, 25.
  58. ^ a b c Baroin, Catherine. "L'odyssée africaine d'un cordophone rudimentaire, le « luth à pique intérieure »". Afrique Archéologie Arts. In the documentation consulted on today's lutes, only two "inner-end" instruments with pinning in the middle of the soundboard have been listed. These are the kakanza of the Lamang (fig. 9) and the gzöpöli of the Bana (fig. 10), populations of northeastern Nigeria near the Mandara Mountains. These lutes described by R. Wente-Lukas (1977: 256-260) are characterized by a single broaching in the center of the soundboard.
  59. ^ Baroin, Catherine. "L'odyssée africaine d'un cordophone rudimentaire, le « luth à pique intérieure »". Afrique Archéologie Arts. [note: this link is to the photograph of the instrument]
  60. ^ a b Pestcoe, Shlomo; Adams, Greg C. "3 List of West African Plucked Spike Lutes". In Robert B. Winnans (ed.). Banjo Roots and Branches. p. 48. Semi-Spike Lutes...kaburu (Gwari [Gbari, Gbagyi]: Nigeria) (three strings)
  61. ^ a b c d e f g Sadie Stanley, ed. (1984). "Kaburu". The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Vol. 2. London: MacMillan Press. p. 342.
  62. ^ Zubair Mubaraq (25 June 2013). "untitled". Gbagyi Youths for Change. ...Kabulu/Abwagyi Musical cultural Group from Kuta won for Nigeria her only medal at All-Africa-Cultural Festival held in Algiers in 1969?...a commemorative postage stamp of Ten Kobo (10Kobo) denomination was issued bearing their picture? COMPILED BY: Zubair Mubaraq
  63. ^ Pestcoe, Shlomo (1 February 2009). "West African Folk & Artisan Lutes". Shlolomusic.com. Illustration credits: Traditional Gwari musicians playing large gourd-bodied kaburu and a goje fiddle, Nigeria.
  64. ^ "Photographic Print, Museum number Af,A68.21". British Museum.
  65. ^ "The Forgotten Legend of Gbagyi Traditional Music Nation in Nigeria". Galukwo Magazine. [Note: instrument called a Mulo in the source; The New Grove Encyclopedia of Musical Instruments says molo may refer to any plucked string instrument in Hausa areas of Nigeria.]
  66. ^ Governor of Kaduna @GovKaduna (10 Jan 2019). "Malam Nasir @elrufai is receiving a delegation of the Gbagyi Federation Council, led by the Wakili Gbagyi Nupe, Alh. Awaisu Mohammed Kuta". [Note: photo 4 has 3 men with kabulu lutes]
  67. ^ "The Kabulu drums". Gbagyi/hub-Culture. I bring to you the kabulu drums, which is mostly found among the Gbagyi Kuta people of Niger State.
  68. ^ Baroin, Catherine. "L'odyssée africaine d'un cordophone rudimentaire, le « luth à pique intérieure »". Afrique Archéologie Arts. [note: this link is to the photograph of the instrument]
  69. ^ a b "Luth". Quai Brandley Museum. Common name: Keleli Geography: Africa – Central Africa – Chad – Borkou-Ennedi-Tibesti – Tibesti ; Africa – Physical and cultural geography – Sahara Culture: Africa – Teda
  70. ^ a b c "Luth". Quai Brandley Museum. Geography: Africa – Northern Africa – Libya – Fezzan Culture: Africa – Teda
  71. ^ Cite error: The named reference GroveKekeki was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  72. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Grove was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  73. ^ Sadie Stanley, ed. (1984). "Kologo". The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Vol. 2. London: MacMillan Press. p. 453.
  74. ^ a b c d e f g h i Gourlay, K. A. (1984). "Kuntigi". In Sadie Stanley (ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Vol. 2. London: MacMillan Press. p. 486.
  75. ^ a b c d Pestcoe, Shlomo; Adams, Greg C. "3 List of West African Plucked Spike Lutes". In Robert B. Winnans (ed.). Banjo Roots and Branches. pp. 47–49. kuban [kubango] (Bassari:Togo) (two strings; gourd body)
  76. ^ a b c Ankermann, Bernhard. Die afrikanischen musikinstrumente.
  77. ^ "Kwamsa". A Hausa-English dictionary by George Percy Bargery. 1934. kwamsa (Go.) = kwafsa I q.v {{cite encyclopedia}}: line feed character in |quote= at position 7 (help)
  78. ^ a b c d e f g Pestcoe, Shlomo; Adams, Greg C. "3 List of West African Plucked Spike Lutes". In Robert B. Winnans (ed.). Banjo Roots and Branches. pp. 47–49. kwamsa [komsa, khamsa] (Hausa:Nigeria; Niger) (two strings; gourd body)
  79. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harris, P. G. (January-June, 1932). "Notes on Drums and Musical Instruments Seen in Sokoto Province, Nigeria". The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 62. Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland: 122–125. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  80. ^ a b c "Kwafsa". A Hausa-English dictionary by George Percy Bargery. 1934. kwafsa. I. [kwafsa"] {n.f.}. A large stringed musical instrument. (= kwabsa.). {{cite encyclopedia}}: line feed character in |quote= at position 8 (help)
  81. ^ Veit Erlmann (1983). "Notes on Musical Instruments among the Fulani of Diamare (North Cameroon)". African Music. 6 (3). International Library of African Music: 20, 24. Figure 7
  82. ^ "Molo". A Hausa-English dictionary by George Percy Bargery. 1934. molo [mo/lo/] {n.m.; pl. mo/la"ye/+}. 1. A kind of guitar, usually three-stringed. (= maulo; (Go.) maulu.)
  83. ^ a b Diamond, Stanley. Music of the Jos Plateau and other regions of Nigeria (PDF). Folkways Ethnic Library FE 4321. Anaguta man singing and playing the molo. The molo, a small, three-stringed Hausa lute...its third string (producing the highest tone)...is fastened at a point so high on the fingerboard that the left hand cannot reach it...it plays only one note.
  84. ^ Diamond, Stanley. Music of the Jos Plateau and other regions of Nigeria (PDF). Folkways Ethnic Library FE 4321. Tiv--male, singing and accompanying himself on the molo...itinerant professional...Although the Tiv people are not Islamic, this man's style betrays much Islamic influence; he slaps the strings, attacks each not with a slide, sings in throaty embellished manner...that of the Islamic Hausa-Fulani singers...
  85. ^ a b c d e "22 Production-line song-writing! Filed Under (Ethnomusicology, General) by Rob on 22-06-2007". Adventures in West Africa with Rob & Lois. One instrument I hadn't seen before was the two-stringed traditional guitar, made up of a calabash (gourd) and a long stick. This one also had metal lids from Coke, Sprite and Fanta bottles on the end of the head for added percussion!
  86. ^ a b c d Bamber, Nick (1 February 2009). "Two Gourd Lutes from the Bijago Islands of Guinea Bissau". Shlolomusic.com.
  87. ^ a b "African Music". Nag Biegu Verse-chorus The piece is in a verse-chorus form (verse = A, chorus = B) [where] A [is] - the vocalist and leading lunga drummers praise Naa Abdulai [and] B [is] - drummed chorus
  88. ^ a b Jean Jenkins; Paul Rovsing Olsen. Music and Musical Instruments in the World of Islam. London: Horniman Museum. pp. 84, 86. Most European instruments had their ancestry in North Africa and the Middle east...During the whole of the Middle Ages, Spain (Al-Andalus) was one of the spiritual hearts of Europe for several centuries musical ideas and theories spread over the continent from Cordoba, Toledo, Malaga, Seville and Granada. The Christians discovered the 'ud and made their lute in its image...
  89. ^ Stephanova, Anastasia (15 June 2018). "Who Conquered Spain? The Role of the Berbers in the Conquest of the Iberian Peninsula". Written Moments of the Orient. 4 (1). The Muslims who invaded the Iberian Peninsula in AD 711 were mainly the Berbers, and were led by a Berber, Ṭāriq b. Ziyād, though under the suzerainty of the Arab Caliph of Damascus and his North African Viceroy, Mūsà b. Nuṣayr...a Berber dynasty, viz. the Moroccan Almoravids, took control over al-Andalus; then they were succeeded by the Almohad dynasty of Morocco, also of Berber origin
  90. ^ Menocal, María Rosa; Scheindlin, Raymond P.; Sells, Michael Anthony, eds. (2000), The Literature of Al-Andalus, Cambridge University Press
  91. ^ Davila, Carl (2009). "Fixing a Misbegotten Biography: Ziryab in the Mediterranean World". Al-Masaq: Islam in the Medieval Mediterranean. 21 (2): 121–136. doi:10.1080/09503110902875475. S2CID 161670287.
  92. ^ a b c "Deborah Kapchan on the Gnawa of Morocco". 8 December 2023. Deborah Kapchan ...professor of Performance Studies at New York University...in 2007, she published a book on her work with the Gnawa, Traveling Spirit Masters: Moroccan Gnawa, Trance and Music in the Global Marketplace (Wesleyan University Press). Banning Eyre interviewed her in her office in New York in 2009.
  93. ^ "Watch: Tunisia's Stambeli Ritual (COSMOS Scene Report) Friday Mar 29th 2024 COSMOS". Le Guess Who. Back in the days of slavery they took his daughter, and nearly losing his mind, he kept looking for her, moving from one country to another. A man of great status in this country bought her, and her father came to Tunisia, following her trail. Bou-Saadia, wearing his [tribal] mask from one place to another...
  94. ^ Barton, Simon (2009). A History of Spain. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 104. ISBN 978-1-137-01347-7.
  95. ^ a b Ethnomusicology vol 20 issue 2 may 1976, page 327, letter to the editor by Ken A. Gourlay. https://www.jstor.org/stable/851021

Catherine Baroin , «  The African Odyssey of a Rudimentary Chordophone, the « Lute with an Inner Spike »  » , Afrique: Archéologie & Arts [Online], 7 | 2011, published on 01 November 2015 , consulted on 27 August 2024. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/aaa/625 ; DOI  : https://doi.org/10.4000/aaa.625




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