User:Jacqke/Traditional African lutes

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 classification	321.31 321.33 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• https://www.worldmusictextbook.org/chapters/llano-2023
• https://afropop.org/articles/deborah-kapchan-on-the-gnawa-of-morocco
• https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/moroccan-gnawa-and-transglobal-trance/
• https://sannyassa.co.uk/sufi-brotherhoods-and-trance-ceremonies-in-the-maghreb/
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4801492/
• https://www.abc.net.au/listen/radionational/archived/rhythmdivine/moroccos-sufi-trance-masters/8127472

names and variations of names	Description	Ethnic connections, regions	Picture	Picture
Guembri (الكمبري) Gombri gimbri (Hausa) Hajhouj, 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). May be present amplified with tbal drum and qarqabs. Lila rituals are musically induced trances, both religious and therapeutic. The Malam is a "master of ceremonies", guiding the participants' trance. Tunisian possession ritual is called Stambali. Instruments may come with sersar (Moroccan Arabic for jangling bells, as on an alarm clock).	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. 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. 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. Bowl back carved from block of wood with separate fitted neck, goatskin soundboard, 3 or 4 strings. Largest version may have 8 strings. Played with "long curved pick". "Tuned in E-A-D-G over two octaves". Sound is somewhat "muffled".	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. A 4-string version is played by the Jebala people of Jajouka, Morocco. Amazigh, Amazighen, Berber peoples. Sufi religious traditions, "trance-inducing music". 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. May have tortoiseshell resonator.	Morocco. Sold as tourist souvenirs. Used in Malhun orchestras to play Moroccan classical music.	Small lothar with tortoiseshell body (called akroun or fakrun). Possible Suissen. Small-sized gumbri's in Tunisia. Tourist souvenirs.	Small loutar. 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

Jaliya, the Griot tradition

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.

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." 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.

Griot lutes

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.

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.

-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."

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  Guinea, circa 1900-1920. The Malinké head of Toumanéa with two griots. Mandinkas had griot lutes known as koni.

Names and variations	Description	Ethnic connections, regions	Pictures	Pictures
Gambare		Soninke people Serahuli
Hoddu	Carved wooden-trough resonator Fan bridge.	Senegal Mali Guinea Guinea-Bissau Senegambia Fula or Fulbe or Peul people Tukulóor	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 Kambreh	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. Also 3 strings.	Sierra Leone Fulbe people	Example photo at Musical Instruments Museum Online (MIMO).	Example photo at museum.
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).	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. Griots of indigenous peoples employed for praise singing of Moors and to disparage their enemies. Tidinit borrowed along with griot customs. Today tidinit used in Azâwân music. Griot music is called azawan, singing accompanied by tidinit, ardin and tbal kettledrum. 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.	Example photo at Philharmonie de Paris.
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.		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

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

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. The handles or round necks are fretless, made from a papyrus stalk. Typically they have 3 strings (a short drone string as on a banjo, and two melody strings). 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). The strings pass over an upright bridge that sits directly on top of the soundtable's skin surface.

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

-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. Similar to kologo. Metal attachments on neck rattle as this lute is played.	Chad Dekakire Arab people		Photo on the album Anthologie de la Musique du Tchad
Garaya	Semi-spike lute 2 strings, gourd body.	Cameroon Nigeria (see photo) Chad Fulani people 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).	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.
Garaya Boddu		Cameroon Peul people
Garaya Gigo am (My Beloved in Peul language)		Cameroon Peul people		Gigo am (My Beloved in Peul language)
Garaya Mukaandu Gurmi		Cameroon Peul people
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).
Garaya Soudido		Cameroon Peul people	File:Alfa Barry carrying a Garaya (lute).jpg Luthier and musician Alfa Barry, with one of his garaya lutes in a travel bag.	Soudido (the Silent, Peul language)
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	Semi-spike lute. 2 strings. Oval wooden soundbox, total length about 50 cm. Duiker hide or goatskin covering. Top has long metal attachment with jingles. Plucked with "diamond-shaped pick of stiff cowhide."	Central Sudan Nigeria Niger Hausa people		Example illustration on postage stamp.
Babbar garaya (big garaya) Komo	Semi-spike lute. 2 strings. Oval shaped. 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. Cow or rhinoceros hide pick.	Central Sudan Nigeria. Hausa people. Played for entertainment and religion, the "bori spirit possession ceremonies. Formerly used in ceremonies to praise hunters.		Photo of a probable babbar garaya at the Quai Branley Museum; dimensions 84 x 23 x 16 cm, 2 strings, oval shaped, Hausa people.
Gullum gulom	Full-spike lute. 3 strings. Body a "hemispherical calabash", cowhide soundboard laced to the instrument. Nylon stings. Horsehair strings traditional. Longest string tuned first, then middle string ("tuned to a 4th), then the shortest (tuned to an octave of the first string).	Chad Cameroon Northern Nigeria Kotoko people Mser people Moria people Bara people Makari people Kilba people Played by men for entertainment or traditionally to "hunt spirits." Played alongside a half-calabash (percussion, hit with two sticks).		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.
Gurmi Ngurumi Kumbo	Full-spike lute. Body is a half calabash. The handle or neck passes through both sides of the calabash resonator. Sound hole in the top of the instrument. Cylindrical bridge 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.	Central Sudan Nigeria Niger Hausa, Northern Nigeria. Toubou people Versions in 1930 had metal jingles attached [Gurmy, Groves vol2]. These illustrated in photo from 1950s at Smithsonian.	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 Gouroumi	Carved-wooden trough resonating body. Cylinder bridge.	Niger Dosso people Maouri people Mawri people
gzöpöli	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. 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.
Kaburu Kabulu	Semi-spike lute 3 strings. Large lute (up to 100 cm long) with metal jingles on the top of the handle adding extra length. 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. Gbagyi (also called Gwari) Used in kabulu or kaburu music. Originally used for ritual music. Played in multi-lute ensemble, up to 8 lutes together. This was originally an instrument of the Kuta, Nigeria area Gbagyi, and has spread.	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. Photo of Nigerian musicians, circa 1916 (possibly as late as 1930) playing Kaburu style lutes, accompanied by goje fiddles. Photo of Dr. Adamu WALO, also called Bwalo Shattan Gwari (stage name). Dr. Walo is shown holding an oval kaburu.	Nigeria, Niger State, Minna. Gbagyi instrument called the kabulu. 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. 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.
Keleli	Two variants are found in the Quai Branley museum: Full-spike lute Semi-spike lute 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). Oval wooden soundbox, total length about 50 cm.	Nigeria Chad Libya Toubou people Kidi people	Picture of a full-spike keleli at the Quai Brandley Museum Picture of a semi-spike keleli at the Quai Brandley Museum.	Drawing of a semi-spike keleli. At the soundhole, the skin is rolled up around a stick or peg. Strings tied to the sharp end peeking through the soundhole go over the rolled up skins and stick, holding them in place. The rolled skin and stick act as a bridge. The neck is a round stick, thinner than drawn. Strings run up the neck and are tied to straps, themselves tied around the neck.
Kologo	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 Kuntigi	321.331 Half-spike or tanged bowl lutes One string lute, plucked. 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.	Central Sudan Niger Nigeria Hausa people Songhay people	Calabash bodied kontigi. Earlier kontigis, used the calabash, while later kontigis have a metal body.	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 Kubangu	Semi-spike lute. Two-strings with a gourd body. The handle is threaded through the skin soundboard multiple times.	Togo Bassari people.		A lute of the Bassari people, probably the kuban which has two strings and a gourd body. Illustrated in 1901 in the book Die afrikanischen musikinstrumente by Bernhard Ankermann
kwamsa komsa khamsa kwafsa kwabsa	A semi-spike lute 2-strings, a gourd body, and cylindrical bridge. Large. The body is a calabash, about 15 inches long. The handle or neck is made of hardwood, about 3 feet long. 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. The end of the handle rests on a crossbar under the skin. A cylinder bridge sits on top of the skin pressed against the crossbar. The metal jingle at the top of the neck is about 12 inches long.	Nigeria, Niger. Hausa people. Arewa people of Sokoto province Zaberma people of Sokoto province Traditionally used by "young men to serenade their lovers." Modern use in Bori ceremonies.	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)	Semi-spike lute. Usually 3 strings. 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.	Central Sudan Nigeria Niger Hausa people Anaguta people Tiv people Plucked with thumb. Used traditionally to praise chiefs. Substitute for goje in bori ceremonies.	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 with 2 strings. Calabash resonating body, skin top, wooden handle	Nigeria 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, 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. There are no pegs for the strings in the photo, so they are held in place with leather straps on the instrument's neck.	Central Sudan Togo Ncam people. The lute was observed to play the music or genre Kitamkpanbeeu – A piece using the traditional two-stringed guitar.		Photo of Ncam man playing a lute in Bassar, Togo.
Akonting (English transliteration) ekonting (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		folk lute of the Manjak
kisinta kusunde		folk lute of the Balanta
busunde		folk lute of the Papel		Guinea, Papel people. Probable busunde.
ngopata		folk lute of the Bijago, Bijago Islands of Guinea Bissau.

More information needed

From DEKKMMA database

• 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., 2 string lute, made of gourd with skin soundtable, wood handle, tendons, nylon strings and iron.
• Diéli (dyèli) Konou, Guinea, Malinké people
• Dumbo, Nigeria, Hausa people
• Egogo, Kenya, Kuria people, one string lute

Indonesian tradition

• 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

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

Outside influences

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

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

Routes of slave trade in Africa

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

Pre-Islamic slave trade

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

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. This image shows the influence of Islamic fiddles on European music. 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. 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. A music school would be established in the Córdoba. 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. West African traditions of spiritual and animist ritual combined with Islamic Sufism to create modern Gnawa music. 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." 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.

As early as the 3rd century A.D., "Berberized" people lived in the Sahara. The largest wave of the in the north from Sub-Saharan Africa arrived in the 15th to 16th centuries. 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 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.

Mali court

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. He also considered the kanabir written about by Ibn Battuta to be ancestral to these two modern lutes.

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

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

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

Gallery

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  Ramkie
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  ribab
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References

• [1] Charry, Eric (March 1996). "Plucked Lutes in West Africa: an Historical Overview". The Galpin Society Journal. 49. The Galpin Society.
• [2] Bebey, Francis (1975). African Music, A People's Art. Lawrence Hill Books. ISBN 1-55652-128-6.
• [3] Pestcoe, Shlomo; Adams, Greg C. (2018). "3 List of West African Plucked Spike Lutes". In Winans, Robert B. (ed.). Banjo Roots and Branches. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press. pp. 45–54.
• [4] Gaddy, Kristina R. (2022). Well of Souls: Uncovering the Banjo's Hidden History. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 9780393866803.
• [5] Kristina R. Gaddy — Well of Souls: Uncovering the Banjo's Hidden History. [note: Interview with author Kristina R. Gaddy]
• [6] Ankermann, Bernhard (1901). Die afrikanischen musikinstrumente. Druck von A. Haack. pp. 1–12.
• [7] [1]
• [8] Electronic reference

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

• Catherine Baroin, « L’odyssée africaine d’un cordophone rudimentaire, le « luth à pique intérieure » », Afrique : Archéologie & Arts [En ligne], 7 | 2011, mis en ligne le 01 novembre 2015, consulté le 27 août 2024. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/aaa/625 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/aaa.625
• Lutes of Africa
• details of egyptiN lute bridges and soundboard

• Fulwood, E.L. Quantitative similarities between the banjo and a diverse collection of West African lutes. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 9, 392 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-022-01401-3 [https://rdcu.be/dTuOo shareable link
• Notes on Musical Instruments among the Fulani of Diamare (North Cameroon) Author(s): Veit Erlmann Source: African Music , 1983, Vol. 6, No. 3 (1983), pp. 16-41 Published by: International Library of African Music Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/30249770

• African bluegrass
• Egyptian lute bridge
• Hoddu (Xalam) article at MET

• Pestcoe, Shlomo (20 November 2007). "Banjo Ancestors". Shlolomusic.com.

• Pestcoe, Shlomo (1 February 2009). "West African Lutes In a Nutshell". Shlolomusic.com.

• Pestcoe, Shlomo (1 February 2009). "The Ngoni/Xalam Hypothesis". Shlolomusic.com.

• Pestcoe, Shlomo (1 February 2009). "West African Folk & Artisan Lutes". Shlolomusic.com.

• Pestcoe, Shlomo (1 February 2009). "The Origin of West African Lutes". Shlolomusic.com.

• Pestcoe, Shlomo (1 February 2009). "From Ancient Egypt to West Africa: The Lute Connection". Shlolomusic.com.

• Pestcoe, Shlomo (1 February 2009). "The First West African Lutes: Gourd-Bodied?". Shlolomusic.com.

• Pestcoe, Shlomo (1 February 2009). "The Origin of West African Lutes". Shlolomusic.com.

• Pestcoe, Shlomo (1 February 2009). "The Ngoni/Xalam Hypothesis". Shlolomusic.com.

• Pestcoe, Shlomo (1 February 2009). "The Harp-Lutes of West Africa". Shlolomusic.com.

• Pestcoe, Shlomo (1 February 2009). "The Early Banjo in the New World". Shlolomusic.com.

• Pestcoe, Shlomo (1 February 2009). "Banjo Ancestors Detectives: Daniel Jatta & Ulf Jägfors". Shlolomusic.com.

• Pestcoe, Shlomo (1 February 2009). "Introduction On the Trail of the Banjo's Lost Roots: A Personal Journey". Shlolomusic.com.

• Pestcoe, Shlomo (1 February 2009). "The 5-String Banjo". Shlolomusic.com.

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