Minneapolis Institute of Art

Harp

Nzakara artist

Date

late 19th century

Medium

Wood, animal skin

Culture

Nzakara

Department

Arts of Global Africa

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

It may resemble a guitar and sound like a lute. But with five strings running perpendicular to its sound box, rather than strung across it, this is a harp—a bow harp, in fact, owing to its shape. A century ago, among the Nzakara people in Central Africa, court poets praised—and sometimes critiqued—the deeds of past and present kings to the accompaniment of a bow harp. Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo

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