Contextual Associations

This instrument is an open and arched spike-harp possibly of the Senufo people of the Ivory Coast. However, a precise identification of its place of manufacture and of the cultural group that produced and used it is not possible due to a paucity of information. The instrument’s possible association with the Senufo people of the Ivory Coast is mentioned here because of the attribution given to a nearly identical instrument found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Not knowing on what information that institution is basing its attribution keeps us from adopting it as fact. According to Charry (pp. 76-77), West African spike-harps have vertical bridges (see kora on this website) or stringholders (the instrument under discussion here), a feature that differentiates them from harps found elsewhere on the African continent. Both forms share the characteristic of the neck passing through the instrument’s resonator with the bottom end of the neck protruding a short distance beyond the resonator wall (detail #3). For the former type of West African spike-harp, the resonator is generally made from a large globular gourd and is found widely distributed amongst peoples living in the savannahs of West Africa; for the latter type of arched harp, the resonator is generally made of wood carved out of a tree trunk and is associated with peoples living in the West African belt of rainforests. From these generalizations we can deduce that the harp being discussed here probably hails from a culture situated in the tropical rainforest region of West African. Some Senufo subgroups reside in this region, so this instrument might hail from one of them. A three-string version of a Senufo one-string spike-harp found “in Western Senufo territory” and called bolo-bogo is mentioned by Aka (p. 365), but he does not provide enough descriptive information about this instrument for us to assign this name to this instrument with any confidence. The anthropomorphic form of the instrument’s stringholder (details #1 and 2) suggests that the culture from which this instrument hails probably attaches meaning to it, but exactly what that meaning is cannot be known without a clear attribution of this instrument to a specific cultural group.

Description

The resonator of this instrument is carved out of a solid block of hardwood and is by-in-large bowl-shaped (detail #3) but with a short tubular projection extending from the neck-side of the bowl. This projection is hollow and serves as a side opening to the instrument’s resonance chamber (detail #4). The main/top opening of the resonator is covered with a mammal pelt (possibly from a sheep or antelope) that is attached to the resonator with the aid of ten small pegs, positioned roughly equidistantly around the rim of the resonator opening, and a length hide lacing. Slits cut through the pelt near its edge produce openings that are lapped over the small pegs and in turn the length of lacing is tightly wound and twisted around and between the pegs to hold the membrane, which serves as the instrument’s soundboard, in a state of tension (detail #5)—like a drumhead. At the center of the soundboard stands vertically a wooden string holder (detail #3), resting on a small disc of hide stitched loosely into the center of the soundboard (detail #6). The instrument’s three heavy-gauge gut strings run from this string holder to holes cut through the long, arched neck of the harp. One end of this neck, probably carved from the branch of a tree, passes through holes drilled in the sidewall of the resonator; only an inch or so of one end protrudes from the backside of resonator (detail #7). The segment of the other end of the neck extending from the front-side of the resonator is much longer—44 inches. It is in this segment of the neck that the three holes are drilled to receive the instrument’s gut strings. Each string runs from one of these holes in the neck through a hole in the stringholder. The original knotting to the neck of the strings, which would have allowed for the tension of the strings to be controlled, has been lost (detail #8), but the original knotting at the backside of the stringholder survives (detail #9). This system of string attachment produces different vibrating lengths for each string on this instrument--47.6, 42.5, and 32 inches. However, to fine tune these strings it is necessary for the stringholder to provide the necessary counterforce to the tensioning control mechanism once found at the neck-end of each string. This counterforce is created by two lengths of gut lacing that loop around the carved female figure at the top of the string holder (details #1and 2) and are then secured around three of the resonator rim pegs that are a part of the soundboard attachment system. One of these laces, its two ends attached to pegs on opposite sides of the resonator, keep the stringholder vertical in one plane, while the second lace, which loops around the neck of the figure at the top of the stringholder and is then twisted around itself before being looping over the peg at the back side of the resonator, not only keeps the stringholder vertical in another plane but also provides the necessary counterforce to the tension of the strings when in tune. The combined work of these two support laces can best be seen in detail #3; the anchoring of the counterforce lacing around a soundtable peg is visible in detail #7. Finally, a secondary sound producing component is added to the distal end of the neck. Made from the blade of a shovel/spade that has holes punctured just inside its edge with metal rings (some possibly from parts of old lock keys) passing through many of them (detail #10), it would rattle in response to the vibrational energy produced by the strings. The blade is decorated with three intersecting lines that have been embossed into the metal.

Player - Instrument Interface and Sound Production

Because the identity of this instrument is unknown at this time, no information on the player – instrument interface can be presented.

Origins/History/Evolution

Because the identity of this instrument is unknown at this time, no information on its origins, history, and evolution can be presented.

Bibliographic Citations

Aka, Konin. 2014. “Bolo-bogo.”  GDMI v.1: 365.

Charry, Eric. Mande Music. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.