Contextual Associations
The domu is an open harp of the Mangbetu people of northeast Democratic Republic of Congo. This specimen was possibly made in the early 20th century by Mangbetu craftsmen for European and American art collectors. Kubik states that: “In the early 1900s, Mangbetu carvers, exploiting what were the beginnings of a lucrative colonial trade in touristic art, produced thousands of ivory harps with carved motifs and body coverings made of reptile skin . . . European tourists bought these specimens of Mangbetu harps, which ended up in the international trade of African art, or in public collections” (Kubik 1998, pp. 655-656). Therefore, in all likelihood, this harp was never played in a Mangbetu social setting. Open harps do not seem to have held a significant place in Mangbetu music making for long: “They [harps] evidently appeared amongst the Mangbetu sometime after the mid-1870s and reached a peak of popularity during the early colonial period … harps are no longer found among the Mangbetu … they are silent symbols of a bygone era” (Miller, p. 214). The arched neck of this domu is anthropomorphic (detail #1), presenting a female figure with characteristic Mangbetu hair styling and body-painting designs (a domu with a similarly decorated ivory neck is seen on p. 278 of DjeDje [1999]; see also the wood carving pictured in Figure 7.15 in Schildkrout and Keim [1990] p. 132). The Mangbetu domu, and indeed African harps in general, was a solo instrument played by male singers to accompany themselves for entertainment.
Description
The body/resonator of this domu is a hourglass-shaped wooden bowl covered with reptile skin (detail #2 and #3 show the top and bottom of the resonator). Running longitudinally under the center of the soundboard is a narrow wood slat or string holder with five small holes to accept one end of each of the instrument’s five strings made of twisted sinew (detail #2). Each string, after passing through its soundboard and string holder holes, is tied to a small stick anchor; when the string is tightened from its other end the stick keeps the string end from sliding back through its holes. No soundholes are cut into soundboard, which suggests this instrument was never intended to be used for musical performance and that restringing is impossible without removing the entire soundboard. The neck is carved from a small elephant tusk with five lateral holes drilled through it each accepting a tension-controlling wood tuning peg to which the other end of a string is attached (detail #4). The base-end of the tusk is inserted into a hole at the top end of the resonator body (“like a cork in a bottle”) and the connection is reinforced by copper wire that is wrapped around the large-diameter end of the neck many times (detail #5).
Player - Instrument Interface and Sound Production
The player holds the instrument vertically with the neck on the top pointing outward and the backside of the resonator against his chest; the resonator is between him and the strings (detail #6 shows the domu in playing position as viewed from the perspective of someone facing the performer). The shortest and highest-pitched string is closest to the player, the longest and lowest-pitched string is furthest from him. [The following information is gleaned from Kubik (1964); he is describing the kundi harp tradition of the closely associated Zande group. The accompanying audio clip is of a Zande musician playing a pentatonic arch harp similar to the domu.] The five strings are tuned to an open-octave pentatonic scale covering a range of less than an octave. There is no absolute pitch standard, each player tunes the instrument to match his vocal range and the precise intervallic pattern between notes to his liking. The performer uses the thumbs of both hands and the index finger of either the right or left hand to produce melodic ostinatos over which he sings.
Origins/History/Evolution
While some scholars believe the Mangbetu adopted the kundi harp from the nearby Azande people in the last quarter of the 19th century, others believe the inspiration for the domu came from Bantu-speaking peoples to their south, most likely the Mangbele and the Matchaga. These Bantu harps were most likely of a simple design that the Mangbetu peoples, over time, elaborated by mixing decorative elements (such as elongated heads carved at the terminus of the harp’s neck) they picked up from contacts with the Azande and other Ubangian-speaking peoples to their north (Demolin 1990, p. 198).
Bibliographic Citations
Demolin, Didier. 1990. “Music and Dance in Northeastern Zaire Part 1: The Social organization of Mangbetu Music,” In African Reflections—Art from Northeastern Zaire by Enid Schildkrout and Curtis A. Keim. Seattle: University of Washington Press, and New York: American Museum of Natural History, pp. 195-208.
DeVale, Sue Carole. 2014. “Harp, §III: Africa.” GDMI v.2: 557-561.
DjeDje, Jacqueline Codell, ed. 1999. Turn Up the Volume! Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, pp. 297-298.
Gourley, K.A., and Ferdinand J. De Hen. 2014. “Kundi.” GDMI v.3: 229.
Kubik, Gerhard. 1998. “Central Africa: An Introduction.” In The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music v.1. ed. Ruth M. Stone. New York: Garland Publishing, pp. 650-680.
Miller, Thomas Ross. 1990. “Music and Dance in Northeastern Zaire Part 2: Collecting Culture: Musical Instruments and Musical Change,” In African Reflections—Art from Northeastern Zaire by Enid Schildkrout and Curtis A. Keim. Seattle: University of Washington Press, and New York: American Museum of Natural History, pp. 209-215.
National Music Museum. “Arched Harp (Donnu) by Mangbetu People Uele River Region, Belgian Congo, ca. 1910-1920.” National Music Museum website, accessed 03/08/2022: http://collections.nmmusd.org/Africa/5893/ArchedHarp5893.html
Schildkrout, Enid, and Curtis A. Keim. 1990. African Reflections—Art from Northeastern Zaire. Seattle: University of Washington Press, and New York: American Museum of Natural History.
Tracey, Hugh, and Andrew Tracey. 2000. Forest music Congo: northern Belgian Congo, 1952. Utrecht, The Netherlands: SWP Records; Grahamstown, South Africa: International Library of African Music.
