String instrument

(UEM21025) A string instrument with a leather resonance chamber with two holes and five bamboo fibre strings. The instrument’s wooden neck is carved in the form of a female, human-like figure with what was then a distinctive Mangbetu hairstyle and an idealised, elongated head shape. As a combined practical musical and artistic artefact, the string instruments were usually in the possession of families of high social rank.

Material: Leather, wood, and straw
Region: Ibembo, Mangbetu
Length: 44 cm.
Arrival: Donated to the Museum by Dr Inge Heiberg, 1911.