Page 102 - Empires of Medieval West Africa

t h e m a n d e p e o p l e o f t h e m a l i E m p i r e

through holes around the sides. When
the instrument is played, the leaf
vibrates and creates a buzzing sound to
accompany the music.
Two kinds of large, deep-toned
harps with slightly curved necks are
played to accompany praise songs for
hunters. The simbi has seven strings
and is tuned to a heptatonic scale (a
scale with seven tones, as opposed to
the eight-tone scale used in Western
music). The donso ngoni (donso means
“hunter” and ngoni means “harp”) has
six strings and is tuned to a pentatonic
scale (a scale with five tones). A slightly
smaller version of the donso ngoni, the
kamalen ngoni, is played by young men
at youth gatherings of all kinds, includ-
ing weddings.
The bolon is larger and more deeply
toned than the hunters’ harps. It was
traditionally played to send soldiers into
battle and to praise them after victori-
ous campaigns. The bolon appears to be
the oldest style among existing Mande
harps. It has only three or four strings
and a neck that is curved like the bow of
a hunter or warrior.
The tradition of playing harps may have started in antiquity with This large calabash harp
men returning from the hunt or battle plucking the strings on their called a bolon has a neck
bows and singing about their accomplishments. This could be why the curved like a hunter’s
bow, and music praising
hunters’ and warriors’ harps and music are not part of what the jeli does.
successful hunters is
There are no social restrictions regarding who plays harps, although played on it.
hunters’ praise singers are often blacksmiths (possibly because they
usually make the instruments).
There are two Mande stringed instruments that are not harps. One
of them is called the dan in some regions, and the kòwòrò in others.
It has a calabash resonator, but is unlike the other stringed calabash
instruments played by Mande musicians. There is an individual neck

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