Mali, Africa
Mande

Wood, Cow skin, Metal, Nylon Strings
1970’s
Chordophone – Half-spike Lute – Plucked

The ngoni (nkoni) is a semi-spiked plucked lute. It has one to seven strings, most commonly four (two long and two short), a hollow wooden trough-shaped body resonator with cow/goat skin covering. The neck is a round fret-less dowel or stick that sits in an indentation in the body and is threaded through the hide sound table passing through most of the body. The strings are nylon and are attached at one end of the neck by sub-Saharan hide tuning laces and pass over a fan-shaped bridge and into a sound hole, where they are attached to the exposed end of the pole.   At the top of the neck is a ‘nyenmyemo’ (long narrow metal resonator fringed with metal rings).  This ngoni ba has a larger and deeper resonator than the smaller ngoni micin in this collection. It is tuned pentatonic.