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● Material Reference · Desk-Verified Dossier

African rosewood (koni)

Documented in the archive in connection with Mandinka Kora Tradition (Casamance & Mandé, Senegal).

Photograph · Folkroom Archive · CC BY-SA 4.0+ Add licensed photo →
Classification
Material
Origin / Scope
Senegal
Connected Rooms
1 Tradition
Bibliography
1 Source

Archival note & context

African rosewood (koni) is attested in the primary archival record for Mandinka Kora Tradition in Casamance & Mandé, Senegal.

Built from a halved calabash gourd stretched with cowhide and a rosewood neck notched with braided leather tuning rings (konso), the twenty-one-string kora is the voice of the Mandinka jali.

Accompanying sung genealogies and the Epic of Sundiata Keita, the player interlocks ostinato bass patterns (kumbengo) with cascading improvisations (birimintingo).

Associated traditions

1
Mandinka Kora Tradition
Casamance & Mandé, Senegal · Storytelling
■■■□ Stable

Sources

1

What’s on this page is sourced from the citation below.

SourcePublisherLicence
Mandinka Kora Tradition — Folkroom Primary Archive Dossier (Senegal)National InventoryCC BY-SA 4.0
"African rosewood (koni)." Folkroom Archive (Materials), https://folkroom.org/materials/african-rosewood-koni · CC BY-SA 4.0.