Cleveland Museum of Art

Lyre (ndongo, endongo, entongoli, or kissar)

Date

by 1928

Medium

Wood, reptile skin, pelt, cloth, and natural fiber

Department

African Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Lyres are common instruments across eastern Africa. The many names–– endongo , ndongo , kissar , or entongoli— reflect how many different groups use this Ugandan type. This example is made from a wooden bowl-shaped sound box covered in the skin of a reptile, possibly a monitor lizard. The strings lead up to a crossbar once decorated with goat hair tassels at each end and sometimes cowrie shells. Imagine the buzzing, resonant sound that this string instrument would make.

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