Kondene

The kondene is a stringed instrument made from bow to which a animal skin covered calabash sound box is attached. The bow is strung with a number of differently-pitched strings, which pass through a bridge mounted on the skin. It shares some features of the bolon bata and others of the kora. As with the kora, two sticks pass through the skin. The player curls the ring-finger and little finger of both hands round these two sticks to hold the instrument while plucking the strings with index fingers and thumbs. According to Cootje van Oven they are associated with the Yalunka people, and particular with Yalunka hunting music. The Sierra Leone National Museum register records that the instrument originally had four strings and that each was named after a different animal: elephant or hippo (lowest pitch), deer or buffalo, antelope, and small deer (highest pitch).

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Further Information

  • Type: Musical instruments
  • Object: Kondene
  • Materials: Vegetable, organic fibre, Wood, Leather, animal skin
  • Culture Group: Yalunka, Fula
  • Dimensions: Unknown
  • Production Date: Pre 1965
  • Associated Places: Unknown
  • Associated People: D.C. Mould of Commerce and Industry (Donor)
  • Museum: Sierra Leone National Museum
  • Accession Number: SLNM.1965.71.02

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