Akonting
Articles & Essays
The Senegambian Akonting
The New World banjo before the
civil war
The African Akonting and The Origins of the
Banjo
Radio interview with Daniel Jatta
YouTube Videos
Akonting videos
The Senegambia Cultural Center
About
the new Cultural Center
The
opening of the Center in 2006
The Jola People
Jola - The forgotten Community
The Jola Culture
The
period of Plenty
How the Akonting reached America
Jola
family system
Akonting blogs
Akonting blogsite
Daniel Jatta's blog
Ulf Jagfors blog
Gallery
A few
pics
Humour
Akonting Song
In Swedish
Akontingen
- Banjons anfader
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Is the African prototype of
the New World
gourd banjo lost forever or
does it still exist?
By Daniel Jatta
It was in year two thousand that I finally completed my field and
deskwork on the
history of the origin of the New World gourd banjo.
Since this time, Ive travelled
and joined conferences in the following countries: Gambia, Senegal, Guinea Bissau,
Sweden, USA and Belgium. In all these
countries I introduced the Akonting lute
instrument and explained to the audience why I feel it is an instrument
worth studying
as far as the search for the prototype of the New World banjo is
concerned.
Since then, I collaborated with Ulf Jagfors, and together we have
documented and
recorded the Akonting dance culture and music that have received a great
attention
especially from the American scholars. Many museums and private individuals
have
now had the Akonting lute among their banjo exhibitions. I would like to
express my
appreciation of meeting most of the banjo collectors community, who had
received
me with warm Welcome the first time I had the opportunity to meet them in
Boston
USA. The encouragement I received from every one of them, inspired me more.
I fully agreed, the search for the origin of the New World gourd banjo is a
complex
exercise, and very time and money consuming. But this does not mean we have
to
stand aloof from the struggle to find its prototype. With a broad framework
of co-
operation and network, I think, a lot can be achieved. It is widely
accepted today that
the New World banjo developed from an African prototype, and
most likely from the
Senegambian region of West Africa. Scholars who researched and
documented facts
on the Ngoni, Hoddu, Akonting and the Buchundu lutes of the Senegambian
region
further strengthen this theory.
All these lute instruments and many others that I did not mention
share some
similarities with the cultures of the New World gourd banjo. Yet,
as far as my twenty-
nine years of research on these instruments is concerned, their history,
cultures and
social significances are dieing and nothing is being done to preserve them.
This is
why Ulf Jagfors and I have taken the initiative to start a Chordophone Museum in
the Gambia to collect,
document and preserve all the Chordophone instruments found
in the region, together with their wonderful folk cultures.
The goal is to make these instruments and their cultures accessible
to all for
research, studies etc. But we cannot do it alone. We need your assistance
to achieve
this our goal. A cultural committee has now been formed in Gambia and Senegal
(Casamance) to work with us on this matter.
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