African Stringed Instruments

Ali & Toumani cover

Ali & Toumani

Toumani Diabaté, Ali Farka Touré
Colours of the Night cover

Colours of the Night

Maleem Mahmoud Ghania
Kadi Yombo cover

Kadi Yombo

Papé Nziengui
Arbina cover

Arbina

Noura Mint Seymali
New Ancient Strings cover

New Ancient Strings

Toumani Diabaté, Ballaké Sissoko
Ethiopia Super Krar cover

Ethiopia Super Krar

Krar Collective
Sya cover

Sya

Issa Bagayogo
Ennanga Vision  cover

Ennanga Vision

Ennanga Vision
Fasiya cover

Fasiya

Sona Jobarteh
Addis 1988 (Feat. Mulatu Astatke) cover

Addis 1988 (Feat. Mulatu Astatke)

Mulatu Astatke, Ethio Stars, Tukul Band
Zanzibar cover

Zanzibar

Bi Kidude

The richness of African musical styles is matched only by the continent’s enormous variety of musical instruments. While most instruments in Africa serve roles that go beyond simple entertainment, stringed instruments in particular have long played a role in maintaining oral traditions, preserving genealogies, and accompanying religious and ritual ceremonies. Although there are hundreds of different types of stringed instruments across the continent, they can broadly be divided into into bowed (fiddles), plucked (harps, lutes, zithers, harp-lutes, harp-zithers) and beaten (musical bows, earth-bows) types.

The kora, the long-necked harp lute of the Mandinka people, is by far the most well known in the West, and since the 1970s its ethereal sound has conquered the global stage. The instrument’s success is in large part due to Toumani Diabate and Ballake Sissoko’s beautiful album Ancient Strings, which helped the kora break down musical borders and span new territories, whilst at the same time remaining rooted in tradition. Kora players have always drawn on tradition, but each generation has pushed boundaries and challenged norms, changing the instrument’s style and sound over the years.  While this has eroded some of the kora’s more traditional aspects, it has arguably ensured its survival and enduring popularity. In Senegal, for example, Noumoucounda Cissoko, who comes from a long line of griots but is also a pillar of Dakar’s hip hop scene, has popularized the sound of the kora in the pop and rap landscapes.

But the kora is only one of thousands of African stringed instruments: many have disappeared or are disappearing along with their masters; other instruments are still commonly used in traditional music or religious ceremonies; some traditional instruments, like the kora, are being taken up by younger generations, and entering the popular music spheres. The orutu, for example, is a one-stringed vertical fiddle of the Luo community from Western Kenya that was almost lost because of Western missionaries’ suppression of traditional African cultures. But thanks to several young Kenyan musicians, the small fiddle is undergoing a renaissance of sorts.

The orutu is one of many bowed string instruments played across Africa.  By far the most common is the goje or “Hausa Violin” and its many variations, a one or two stringed fiddle traditionally tied to pre-Islamic rituals in the Sahel and Sudan. This instrument can sometimes imitate language, for example among the Tamashek nomads of Niger and the Yoruba in Nigeria, assuming an almost human role in the band. Similarly, in Ethiopia, the masenqo played by the azmaris has been used to accompany storytellers. In the Sahara Tuareg women traditionally accompany the men’s poetry and song with their imzad, a single-stringed fiddle.

Plucked instruments include the elegant West African kora, which is classified as a harp lute and consists of a sound-box (a large half-calabash over which a skin is stretched), a large bridge, and 21 strings, which are anchored to the bottom of the long neck with a metal ring. It is thought to have originated in around the Gambia River valley, and is currently played in Gambia, Senegal, Mali, Guinea, and Burkina Faso; as far back as the 1300s scholar and explorer Ibn Battuta described seeing a similar instrument in Mali. Kora players have traditionally come from jali families of the Mandinka tribes and function as historians and storytellers, passing down their skill down through the generations.  There are several kora virtuosi, all descendants from important kora-playing families, but Toumani Diabaté is widely recognized as one of the world’s best kora players. His father Sidiki Diabaté recorded the first kora album Ancient Strings in 1970, and their family oral tradition says they come from 70 generations of musicians. 

Other types of harps are common across certain regions of Africa, especially the belt running from Uganda to Mauritania, just north of the Equator. These include the ennanga of Uganda; the bolon, a large, three-stringed harp from Mali and Guinea that used to be played during military or hunting ceremonies; the kinde harp from the Lake Chad region; and the sacred bwiti harp, played and worshiped by a secret society for the men of the Bahumbu tribe in Gabon. While still being very much tied to tradition, the bwiti harp is one of those instruments that has found its way into modern genres, thanks especially to bwiti master Papé Nziengui, who fused the bwiti’s traditional sound with electric guitars, backing vocals, and layers of synths, creating a “postmodern Gabonese sound.” 

Lutes are found in many different parts of Africa. It is thought that West African plucked lutes may have originated in ancient Egypt, and the akonting (from Senegal, Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau), the ngoni (from Mali), and khalam or xalam (from Senegal) may be an ancestors of the banjo, transported to the Americas through the slave trade. Like the kora, the ngoni has played an important role in preserving histories in parts of West Africa. Ngoni master Bassekou Kouyaté for example comes from a lineage of ngoni players that dates back hundreds of years, and his music has evolved from faithfully traditional arrangements to more contemporary sounds, with albums such as the powerful rock infused Ba Power.

Lyres are most typical of northeastern Africa, both as traditional instruments and in their updated, “modernized” versions. The krar (a five-or-six stringed bowl-shaped lyre tuned to the pentatonic scale) for example is still commonly played by traditional storytellers, and the 1960s sound of legendary singer and krar player Asnakech Worku remains wildly popular today. At the same time groups such as Krar Collective are offering up mind-blowing Ethiopian grooves with their electrified krars, and cutting edge electronic producers like Endeguena Mulu, aka Ethiopian Records, are “chopping it up” and including it in their compositions.

The national instrument of the Baganda people of Uganda is the endongo, an increasingly rare lyre made with the skin of either a monitor lizard or ant lizard; in Kenya, one of the most popular traditional instruments is the eight-stringed plucked bowl lyre known as the nyatiti, made famous across the world by the delicate, transportive music of Ayub Ogada. The Luo musician is  widely regarded as one of Kenya’s greatest artists, and was “discovered” by Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios while busking in the London underground. Following in Ayub’s footsteps, Makadem has emerged as the Nyatiti’s newest “master”, even though his approach is very different: though rooted in the refined and rich Nyatiti sound, his music blends Ohangla rhythms with benga, hip-hop, funk, and Afro-pop grooves. 

Zithers are another instrument with plucked strings but, unlike the lute, they have no neck. Different types of zither can be found in various parts of Africa, but are by far most common in Madagascar, where the valiha tube zither, constructed with 21 and 24 strings made by unwound bicycle brake cable tied through nails, running the length of a long bamboo pole, is considered a national instrument. Initially played to invoke the ancestors, the valiha is now played across musical genres, either as a lead instrument, with its bright, plucked sounds, or as a trancy drone tone. The marovany is another type of Malagasy zither, but it is box shaped rather than being long, and is traditionally used in religious rituals. 

Many stringed instruments across Africa play specific social roles: some serve  ritual or religious purposes, while others can only be played by people of a certain age, sex, or status. In the Luo community from Western Kenya for example only men are traditionally allowed to play the orutu, while among Moorish griots of Mauritania the ardine is only played by women. 

But music is living and breathing, sounds are constantly evolving and traditions are being challenged. In Kenya Labdi Ommes has taken up the orutu, combining it with electronic music and jazz, and exposing a whole new generation to this traditional instrument. Sona Jobarteh, who was born into one of the five principal kora-playing griot families of West Africa, has broken with tradition to become the first woman to take up the instrument. And while some ancient string instruments have been lost, others are being “rediscovered” by younger generations, modernized and incorporated into different genres.

Megan Iacobini de Fazio

Ali & Toumani

Toumani Diabaté, Ali Farka Touré
Ali & Toumani cover

This magnificent album is deeply rooted in the musical traditions of Mali, but it’s the delicate, deceptively effortless interplay between Malian guitarist Ali Farka Touré and master kora player Toumani Diabaté that makes it a truly transcendental listen, speaking to the deep friendship and creative connection between the two. With subtle rhythm supplied by Buena Vista Social Club bassist Orlando “Cachaito” López and Farka Touré’s son Vieux on Congas, the two Malian greats trade phrases across 11 languid, bluesy tracks. Sadly, this  is the last recording of both Farka Touré and López: a fittingly tender, poignant celebration of life.

Colours of the Night

Maleem Mahmoud Ghania
Colours of the Night cover

This is the final studio recording by Maalem Mahmoud Gania, Moroccan guembri player and performer of Gnawa, the Islamic religious ritual poetry, music, and dancing. If your idea of “religious music” is slow and solemn, you might be in for a surprise: this is frantic, trance-inducing stuff, capable of whipping up even the non-believers among us into a mystic, all-night frenzy. A steady shaker and Gania’s guembri supply the rhythmic backbone to the chant-like, call and response vocals, unleashing Gnawa’s full hypnotic power.

Seperewa of Ghana: Emmere Nhyina Nse

Osei Korankye
Seperewa of Ghana: Emmere Nhyina Nse cover

Despite being related to other West African stringed instruments, the seperewa of Ghana has never received as much attention as the likes of the kora or ngoni. Yet, the small guitar-like harp is integral to the history of Ghanaian highlife and palm wine music, and was their centerpiece before being replaced by the guitar. Osei Korankye is the instrument’s undiscussed master and dedicated keeper, accompanying its spirited melodies with his own classic highlife vocals. 

Ichichila

Tartit
Ichichila  cover

The Tuareg’s “desert blues” has long been a favorite among African music fans, and much of its current popularity should be credited to the female group Tartit, whose album Ichichila was among the first to reach Western ears. Unlike the electronics infused, global sounds of Imarhan, or the desert rock of Tinariwen, Tartit’s music is simple yet incredibly emotive, relying mostly on the tehardent (a three-stringed, plucked long neck lute) and imzad (a single-string bowed violin, mostly played by women), sparse electric guitar, hand claps, and call and response vocals to build their timeless grooves. 

Kadi Yombo

Papé Nziengui
Kadi Yombo cover

Papé Nziengui is seen as something of a heathen in Gabon’s traditional music landscape, a revolutionary who never let himself be confined by tradition or society. He was the first to fuse Tsogho ritual music from Gabon with modern, electronic orchestration, adding thumping beats and layers of synths to the male and female call and response vocals and his twangy Bwiti harp. His 1989 album Kadi Yombo is a fine example of this, a groundbreaking album that brought the Tsogho’s sacred music to the world. Despite upsetting certain purists, Papé Nziengui taught countless young talents how to play the Bwiti harp, thus ensuring the survival of this sacred instrument.

We Are an Island, but We're Not Alone

Comorian
We Are an Island, but We're Not Alone cover

Producer Ian Brennan went to the Comoros islands hoping to record the ndzumara (a double-reed pipe flute), but upon his arrival discovered that the last living player had recently passed away. A chance encounter led him to Comorian, a band composed by  Soubi & Mmadi who play the ndzendze (a box-zither related to the Malagasy valiha) and gambussi (a type of lute that originates from the Arab qanbūs), and D. Alimzé, who adds the Guma drum. At first their music may sound simple, though incredibly expressive and emotional, but listen carefully and you’ll hear the not-so-distant echoes of the Swahili, Malagasy, and Arabian sounds that have flowed through these islands for centuries.

Arbina

Noura Mint Seymali
Arbina cover

As a descendant of a prominent line of over twenty generations of Moorish griots (Saharan praise singers, poets, and musicians), Mauritanian Noura Mint was basically born a musician, learning her unique vocal technique from her grandmother, and mastering the ardine, a harp reserved only for women, at a very early age. On 2016’s Arbina, Mints’ soaring vocals are accompanied by tight rock drumming, deep bass, her own sparkling ardine, and her husband Jeich Ould Chighaly’s psych guitar, which he plays in the style of a  tidinit, a Mauritanian lute similar to the ngoni. Arbina is a trailblazing record, but one still firmly rooted in Mauritania’s musical tradition. 

Escalay: The Water Wheel

Hamza el Din
Escalay: The Water Wheel cover

Hamza El Din’s seminal 1971 album draws on the languid, atmospheric Nubian music from the Upper Nile, but played within the structures of Arabian classical music. “The Water Wheel” is perhaps one of the best examples of his unique style, and follows the experiences of a young boy whose job it is to keep the water wheel (the large wooden wheels, turned by oxen, used for irrigation) going. Hamza El Din’s rhythmic oud perfectly recreates the repetitive movement of the water wheel, creating a timeless, hypnotic groove.

I’m Not Here to Hunt Rabbits

Various Artists
I’m Not Here to Hunt Rabbits cover

I’m Not Here to Hunt Rabbits is a compilation of mostly acoustic guitar and vocal music from Botswana, and focuses on a unique playing style: guitar perched on their knee,  the musicians reach up over the neck of the guitar, their left hand moving up and down the fretboard, nimbly striking the strings with palm, knuckles, and fingers. It’s joyous, carefree music you can imagine bopping to at one of Gaborone’s chabins, cold beer in hand. The compilation also highlights some of Botswana’s traditional instruments, such as the fenjoro, a three-stringed bowed instrument, and the segaba, a one stringed violin-like instrument.

New Ancient Strings

Toumani Diabaté, Ballaké Sissoko
New Ancient Strings cover

In 1970 some of Mali’s greatest kora players, including Sidiki Diabaté and Djelimady Sissoko, came together to make Ancient Strings, a groundbreaking album credited with introducing the kora to the world. Thirty years later their sons Toumani Diabaté & Ballaké Sissoko united once again for New Ancient Strings, a blissful, serene kora album whose beauty lies in the timelessness of tradition and the power of restraint.

Ethiopia Super Krar

Krar Collective
Ethiopia Super Krar cover

On Ethiopia Super Krar the London based Ethiopian trio give a contemporary spin to the krar, a five-or-six stringed bowl-shaped lyre. Accompanied by Grum Begashaw’s kebero drums and the occasional swirl of the masenqo (a single-stringed bowed lute from Ethiopia) and washint flute, Genet Assefa’s vocals and Temesgen Zeleke’s acoustic, electric, and bass krars create a surprisingly full, gritty sound, transforming Ethiopia’s ancient sounds into a hypnotic, funky dance fest. 

En Mana Kuoyo

Ayub Ogada
En Mana Kuoyo cover

The beautiful En Mana Kuoyo includes almost nothing more than Ayub Ogada’s unique voice and the delicate sounds of his nyatiti, the eight stringed hand held lyre from Western Kenya. The Kenyan musician sings in Dholuo about the traditions and everyday life of the Luo people, intoning mellifluous, hypnotic melodies that are as profound as they are simple. A quiet, powerful record.

Sya

Issa Bagayogo
Sya cover

Issa Bagayogo’s debut album sounded like nothing else when it came out in 1999. Working with French producer Yves Wernert, Bagayogo mixed traditional Wassoulou music, based on his kamele ngoni (literally “young man’s harp,” a kind of secular adaptation of the sacred doso ngoni),  with electronic beats and a series of ambient sounds, like the sound of water and chirping birds, producing an album that changed Malian pop music forever. The electronic element doesn’t overshadow Bagayogo’s expressive kamele ngoni, and in fact lends itself perfectly to the repetitive, trance-like groove of Wassoulou music. 

Ennanga Vision

Ennanga Vision
Ennanga Vision  cover

Electro acholi singer Otim Alpha, former Ugandan royal musician and multi-instrumentalist Albert Ssempeke, and London producer Jesse Hackett give a psychedelic, electro pop twist to the Royal Court music of the Buganda Kingdom on this electrifying record. Ennanga Vision opens with Ssempeke’s frantic ngindidi fiddle juxtaposed to Hackett’s wide, serene electronic chords; elsewhere the rippling endongo harp and enormous amadinda xylophone add melody and elegance to the dizzying electronic production and Otim’s trance-inducing, distorted vocals.

The Karindula Sessions

Various Artists
The Karindula Sessions cover

This excellent Crammed Discs record captures the raw, urgent, trance-like energy of karindula music, the “tradi-modern” style from south-eastern Congo that gets its name from the enormous Karindula banjo, usually made out of an oil barrel, a goat skin, four strings, and an empty bag of powdered milk. The album (and accompanying video) was recorded during a street festival in Lubumbashi, and with its rapid, repetitive riffs, insistent chanting and looping percussion, pulls you right into those heightened, feverish party atmospheres. 

Fasiya

Sona Jobarteh
Fasiya cover

Sona Jobarteh comes from a long line of Mande griots, but, in a big break with tradition, she is the first female kora virtuoso.  Fasiya is her first album, and does a lovely job of merging her traditional griot heritage with Western sounds (she studied cello, piano and harpsichord at the Royal College of Music.) Even the instrumentation strikes a perfect balance between tradition and afropop sounds, with Jobarteh’s kora, Juldeh Camara’s buzzing ritti (a one-string fiddle), and Baba Galle Kanté’s elegant Fulani flute underpinned by thumping bass and drums, and interlaced with Jobarteh’s own acoustic guitar and Sankung Jobarteh’s flowing electric guitar.

Introducing Kenge Kenge

Kenge Kenge
Introducing Kenge Kenge cover

Kenge Kenge’s benga music is sparkling, rowdy, and fit for a long night out dancing. But their take on Kenya’s multifaceted national musical style — which emerged out of the adaptation of traditional Luo rhythms to electric instruments — is one that goes back in time, swapping out its distinctive guitar plucking and bass riffs for more traditional instrumentation of the Luo community, such as the cheerful, warped orutu (a one-stringed vertical fiddle), the high-pitched asili flute, and the oporo ox-horn.

Addis 1988 (Feat. Mulatu Astatke)

Mulatu Astatke, Ethio Stars, Tukul Band
Addis 1988 (Feat. Mulatu Astatke) cover

Recorded in 1988, as the title would suggest, this album includes the work of two bands that were prominent on Addis Ababa’s vibrant live music scene, Ethio Stars and Tukul Band. Ethio Jazz superstar Mulatu Astatke was artistic director, composer, arranger and collaborating musician in both bands, but where Ethio Stars had a more funk, pop, and soul groove, Tukul Band experimented with more traditional music, using electrified versions of traditional instruments such as the krar and the masenqo, a single-stringed bowed lute (the only one in Ethiopia), traditionally played by the azmaris.

Anarouz

3MA
Anarouz cover

3MA is the union of three string instrument virtuosos: Malian kora player Ballake Sissoko, Moroccan oudist Driss El Maloumi, and Malagasy valiha harp player Rajery (the valiha harp is Madagascar’s national instrument and consists of a bamboo tube with 20 or so metal strings running its length). It’s a magical combination, one which sees the three instruments intertwining and subtly phasing in and out, taking it in turns to play the leading melody or provide the rhythmic backbone. Anarouz seamlessly moves between West African, Malagasy, and North African atmospheres, but often sits comfortably somewhere in between, in an ethereal symphony of plucked strings.

Zanzibar

Bi Kidude
Zanzibar cover

Bi Kidude was one of Zanzibar’s most prominent singers of unyago, the music and dance style that accompanies weddings and girls’ coming of age rituals. Most importantly, though, she is remembered as the “Queen of Taarab” along the trailblazing Siti binti Saad, who inspired Bi Kidude throughout her life. Despite being the island’s most celebrated musicians, she recorded astonishingly little over her century-long life, and 1998’s “Zanzibar” was her first solo album. Her deep, powerful voice stands in stark contrast with the delicate Taarab instrumentation, which combines percussion, violins, flutes, the oud, and the zither-like kanun, conveying a sense of deep emotion and connection to Zainzibar’s rich past. .