Africa is not well known for its ethnic stringed instruments. The most famous one is probably the KORA, a kind of "harp", that is played with both hands. However there are quite a few instruments that are "guitar-like"".

The area is divided in West Africa, Southern Africa, Madagascar, East Africa and North Africa.

For the Canary Islands and Cape Verde see West Europe.

The only lute-like stringed instrument of Africa (the ngoni) is basically of the same construction, although it can be found in quite a lot of different forms and under even more different names.
The ngoni is mainly found in central and west Africa : Mali, Senegal, Mauretania, etc. Alternative names are : hoddu, tidinit, xalam, kontingo, koni, molo, konde, tehardent (with the Tuareg), etc.

Although many different names, basically they are all a very similar instrument.
The body is a hollowed-out carved wooden bowl, with a hide stretched over the front. The leather covering of the front is often glued onto the wood, with wooden pins around the edge to strengthen the join. A short round wooden (broom)stick is used as neck and stuck in the body through the hide, untill halfway the bowl.

The (usually 4, nylon) strings are fastened to leather hoops on the neck and tuned by moving those up and down the neck (although this seems primitive - you even have to lick the leather hoops to make them stick - the tuning stays put amazingly well).
At the other end the strings are fixed with knots to the end of the broomstick, which sticks through a small hole in the leather front. The 2 middle strings are almost full length, the shorter outer strings serve as a kind of drone (like the 5-string banjo). Some ngoni are nowadays electric. Others have more strings.

Amazingly these rather primitive looking instruments can be played quite virtuously. Only the two middle longer strings are fingered, the rest are picked open. Playing is in a kind of banjo-style (including frailing) without plectrum.

For more information on ngoni see Coraconnection and Malimusic.

	7 stringed ngoni (electric)
	tidinit type ngoni (electric)

This is a kind of large ngoni from Senegal/Gambia area. It is apparently quite rare.

The akonting has a large round body made from a gourd of about 35cm diameter. The skin is goat, fixed to the gourd with nails along the edge.
The neck is about 1.20m long bamboo papyrus broomstick with 3 strings, tunable with leather hoops. The (nylon) strings run over a loose heavy bridge on the skin to the edge of the body.

It is played with clawhammer technique, in repeated riffs to accompany songs.

From website Ragime.nu

Information about the akonting as prototype of the American banjo, can be found via the researchers Daniel Jatta /Ulf Jagfors : Akonting.

The ramkie is the famous "blik kitaar" from Southern Africa; a home made guitar, using an empty oil-can for the body.

The wooden neck is sometimes stuck all the way through the can; sometimes it is fixed to a wooden "lid" on the top. The frets are made from U-shaped pieces of wire stuck in the front of the neck. The kind of capodastre construction is usually just an upside-down "bridge" and can not be moved.

The 4 to 6 strings (if not of nylon) are made of unravelled bicycle brake wire. Usually an open tuning is used, like c f a c'.

The ramkie is mainly found in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Malawi.

Quite recently a modern, electric version of the ramkie (also available in USA and Europe) with a proper professional neck is factory made in Capetown by Townshipguitars.

left: a "bass ramkie" , made from an empty plastic container; instead of frets, a piece of wood was used to shorten the (fish line) string. It was used in a group with a oilcan ramkie. (seen in Malawi, 2006) right: a souvenir ramkie, painted in African colours, with 4 nylon strings; bought in Capetown, 2003.

Madagascar is most famous for its vahila, which is in fact a tube zither (made of a piece of bamboo tube), played similar to the African kora, with hands from both sides and the notes alternating left and right.

Besides the normal Spanish guitar, this small "guitar" called kabosi, is very popular. It is often made of a quite primitive construction, but it has a very powerful sound. Notice that the name is quite close to the gabusi lute (see under), but that the instrument is quite different.

The body is made like a guitar, but the shape can be various: round, square, like a guitar, like a mandolin, etc. The sound hole has extra holes around it as decoration. The neck is fixed to the body and has a separate, thin fingerboard.

Bits of metal fret are used only under the strings where they are necessary for the normally played songs. The 3 pairs of metal strings are made from unraveled bicycle brake cables. The bottom bass string is three threads twisted together.
Tuning is dd' ges'ges' a'a'.

The instrument is usually painted in a red and/or orange colour (which is probably shoe polish).

The kabosi can be heard on many CD's from Madagascar, in typical Malagasy complicated rhythms, like (5+7)/16 and (6+6)/16, or a steady 4 beat with the kabosi strummed in fast triples.

This is a small primitive lute/guitar from Madagascar. It can be found on the main land as tzetze or zeze.

It is made from a gourd, with a black painted wooden stick attached to it. It has 3 wire strings and three frets, carved out of the stick.

The lokango voatavo is not often played anymore. I have not seen or heard anyone playing this instrument.

gabusi / kibangala

In East Africa still exist here and there a small lute-like instrument, called gabusi on the Comoros, kibangala (on the Swahili coast), qabus in Saudi Arabia, gabbus in Oman or qanbus in the Yemen. It is replaced now almost everywhere by the much larger arabic Ud. It may have been the eldest of the lutes.

The body and neck were quite small and made from one piece of wood, hollowed out. The lower part of the body was covered with hide. It had a sickle-shaped pegbox, with friction pegs on both sides. It had no frets. The strings ran over a loose bridge on the skin to a quite large peg like extension at the end of the body. It has/had 4-8 gut/nylon strings in 4 courses and was played with a plectrum.

This instrument had travelled with the Arab sailors (just like the Ud) all the way to South East Asia, where the gambus is still played on the island of Sarawak/Sabah.

The example kibangala is a reconstruction, made by Athman Hussein for Werner Graebner, and played by Zein l'Abdin from Kenya. I tried in vain in 1988 to find a qanbus in San'a in the Yemen - they only had uds. left : part of a blue print plan from the Guild of American Luthiers Instrument Plans GAL .

The hajhuj (or hajhouj) is often played by the Berbers and the Touaregs of the Sahara and it can thus be found both in the north (Morocco) as in the south (Mali) of the desert. Sometimes the name sentir is used for this instrument.

The hajhuj is basically similar to the ngoni, but it is much bigger and usually has a square (or almost square) body outline, with a half-cylinder or bowl shape back. The 3 thick coloured nylon strings (almost like washing line) are fixed to nylon loops around the wooden "broomstick" neck and can be tuned by moving those up and down the neck.

On the top of the neck is a brass device with rings, to add extra jingling effects to the sound. Often the hajhuj is decorated, like in the example with pink painting, or with shiny nails around the edge of the skin.

The hajhuj is played as a kind of bass instrument in a frailing banjo style (picking with the nails downwards), with only the longest (bottom) string fingered, the others are played open as drone.

The gunbri is the popular lute North of the Sahara, played mainly by the Berbers and Rwais tribes in Morocco. Other names are guimbri, gimbri, gambre, gombri.

The body is a rounded piece of wood hollowed out, with a (goat) skin glued over the front. A thick round neck goes all the way through the body. The neck and the tuning pegs are turned on a lathe. The wood is usually left plain, but this example is painted red, and has a nice painted decoration on the back.

The 4 silk or nylon strings run over a loose wooden bridge and are fastened to the end of the round neck stick, through a small hole in the skin.

The gunbri is usually played with the fingers. An extra hoop is tied around the neck to serve as "nut", making all the strings the same length. However like on the ngoni, usually only the 2 middle strings are fingered.

A smaller version of the gunbri is called swisdi or suissen and used in popular urban style of singing.

For more information about North African instruments : Banjoancestors.

This is a small gunbri, with 3 nylon strings. There are several qualities; this one is with the body made of a tortoise shell and has quite a thick skin. The body could also be made like the gunbri from hollowed out wood. The neck here is painted black, with scratches to reveal the wood underneath as decoration.

The better quality ones - resembling more the gunbri - are sometimes called suissen and used in a certain type of Moroccon classical music.

The back of the body is made of a tortoise.

The lotar is another gunbri-like lute from the Rwais tribe in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco.

This type has 2, 3 or 4 nylon strings, with large round tuning pegs. The neck is turned on a lathe and usually painted with rings in bright colours - green, yellow, red and black. The body is made from a piece of wood, a coconut, or any other bowl shaped object.

The lotar is usually played by a duo, which also includes a rebab, a one string spike fiddle.

There is another instrument called lotar (or lutar), used in the Middle Atlas region by the Amazigh imdyazn (bards). This instrument is much larger (0.9m), and very similar to the gumbri.     (picture from NicholasWood.net)

The example has the body made of a small empty (blue) plastic bowl.

The ud is the well known lute of the Arabs, played not only in the northern part of Africa, but in most of the other Muslim countries of Africa as well.

See for a full description of the ud the next section : Middle East.

The small Moroccan 4 course lute : kuitra (or quitra) does not exist anymore.