Kenya
Kenya

Wood, cowhide, strings
Collected in 1920’s
Height: 53 inches; Crossbar: 17.5 inches
Chordophone – Lyre – Plucked

This large bowl-shaped lyre from Kenya is called a “obokano” and has been referred to as the double bass of East Africa.  Traditionally the sound/resonator box is a hollowed out stump of the omotembetree.  It has seven reed strings that are tuned by adjusting the rope-like rings on the crossbar, a resonator hole in the cowhide, and a wooden bridge to elevate the strings from the hide-covered wooden bowl. The musician plays it by plucking the strings with both hands.   

Traditionally men played the obokano. Women were not allowed to touch the instrument in the belief that doing so would make them infertile. The obokano stood for power and pleasure. It was brought out at weddings and other ceremonies, circumcisions or simply for entertainment, for example after the harvest. Often singing accompanied by the obokano led to dancing. Songs glorifying the dead or rain songs in times of drought were often accompanied by the obokano too. Even though rain songs and wedding songs have fallen into disuse since the Christianization of the Kisii area, they live on in the memory.

Museum accession report states it was collected by Quaker missionaries during the early 1920’s.  Source:    obokano | the mim, musical instruments museum