African Cultural Instruments

Source: http://www.brooklynkids.org/attachments/Instruments_Africa_HiRes.pdf

Excerpts from source

KETTLEDRUM (ANTAKARANA)

The antakarana is a kettledrum from Madagascar, an island nation off the east coast of Africa. Women and young men play the antakarana for recreation and entertainment. This instrument also performs as an accompaniment to dances and songs during family events, such as funerals. The antakarana is made from a piece of animal hide laced over the top of a clay bowl (its name means “drum on a cooking pot”). With its shallow depth, it resembles drums from India and the island of Java, and shows the influence of Asian drum forms in Madagascar.

ANGLE HARP

The angle harp is a chordophone common in Central Africa. It gets its name from the shape of its neck, which rises up from the body at a perpendicular angle. Folk harps like this one are played for both ceremonial and recreational purposes. Minstrels (such as West African griots) often play the harp to accompany their singing, but it may also be played as a solo instrument or with an orchestra. The earliest known angle harp was made in Sumeria around 3100 B.C.E. It was also played by ancient Assyrians and Egyptians. Today angle harps are only found in Africa and in the former Soviet republic of Georgia.

Angle harps are played with the resonator (sound box) held upright against the player’s body. This angle harp has a boat-shaped wooden resonator, which is covered with an animal hide membrane. The instrument has four strings attached to small pegs in the neck. The performer tunes the instrument (raisse or lowers the pitch of each string) by carefully turning these pegs.