Musical instrument. Name quoted in the 18th century for a particular Sierra Leone variant of the west African bow-and-bridge harp in which the soundbox is carved from a single piece of wood in a boat-shape with projecting figurehead; the bow of the instrument being bound to the latter with twine. The top of the soundbox is covered with animal skin and supports a wooden bridge with between five and ten strings. A simpler modern version of the instrument called the kondene in Yalunka has a calabash or metal bowl as soundbox. Among the Yalunka and Kuranko it is played by praise-singers for hunters.
- W.A.Hart, 'Two early west African harps in Glasgow', Journal of the History of Collections, 1994, 6, 1, 79-85.
- [There is an illustration of such an instrument in the second edition of J.Matthews, A Voyage to the River Sierra Leone (London 1792.]