This instrument is considered the most important drum by the Yoruba, who call it iya, literally, "the mother." It is played in almost any situation that requires music, mimicking spoken Yoruba speech tones. The varying sounds are obtained by holding the drum under the arm and squeezing the tension strings while striking the membrane with a curved stick. The bells also add sound.Wood hourglass shaped double headed drum with hide tension strings, running from head to head, completely surrounding the entire body of the drum. Shoulder strap and two support straps are made of locally woven striped cotton cloth. Locally cast and imported brass bells hang from support straps.Ambassador and Mrs. Benjamin Hill Brown, Jr., Alexandria, Virginia, before 1971 to 1974Audible Artworks: Selected Musical Instruments, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., June 25, 2000-April 8, 2001As part of our commitment to accessibility and transparency, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art is placing its collection records online. Please note that some records are incomplete (missing image or content descriptions) and others reflect out-of-date language or systems of thought regarding how to engage with and discuss cultural heritage and the specifics of individual artworks. If you see content requiring immediate action, we will do our best to address it in a timely manner. Please email nmafacuratorial@si.edu if you have any questions.High resolution digital images are not available for some objects. For publication quality photography and permissions, please contact the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at https://africa.si.edu/research/eliot-elisofon-photographic-archives/

This Fang harp is missing the arching neck that once attached below the white head and neck finial and supported eight strings and tuning pegs. The harp or ngombi is one of the most sacred objects used by members of Bwiti, a 20th-century religious organization that combines local ritual practices with Western Christianity. The harp symbolizes the body and voice of Nyingwan Mbege, or Sister of God, and communicates between the living and the dead. It is played at every Bwiti ritual by an older male initiate, known as Beti Ngombi, who is considered pure of heart and mind and who is, in effect, "married" to Nyingwam Mbege. The music gives voice to the spiritual teachings of Bwiti and the harp can be said to contain the spirits of the dead.Wood harp with hide composed of tapering rectangular shape with neck ending in a white head with flat black coiffure. Hide is painted in red and white quarters with white cross emblems in the red quarters.Bevill Bressler & Schulman, Newark, New Jersey, -- to 1976As part of our commitment to accessibility and transparency, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art is placing its collection records online. Please note that some records are incomplete (missing image or content descriptions) and others reflect out-of-date language or systems of thought regarding how to engage with and discuss cultural heritage and the specifics of individual artworks. If you see content requiring immediate action, we will do our best to address it in a timely manner. Please email nmafacuratorial@si.edu if you have any questions.High resolution digital images are not available for some objects. For publication quality photography and permissions, please contact the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at https://africa.si.edu/research/eliot-elisofon-photographic-archives/

Female power among the Baga is demonstrated in the use of drums that are carved in the form of a kneeling woman who supports the instrument. This object celebrates the beauty, hard work and social contribution of women in Baga society. Owned by the women's A-Tëkän organization, such drums are played by women at annual initiations, the funerals of association members, their daughters' weddings and the reception of distinguished visitors.The beautiful young woman supporting the drum reflects the female role as "bearer" and of "bride" in Baga culture. Women carry on their heads huge clay vessels filled with water and large baskets of rice. The figure is dressed as a bride wearing necklaces, armlets and bangles, crisscrossed cords attached to a chain of metal bells at her waist, multiple rows of flat waistbeads and seed rattles around her ankles.Wood drum supported on the head of a kneeling female figure, all carved of a single piece of wood. The swelling body of the drum leads to an openwork support structure and a tubular base. It rests on the head of the female figure holding a vessel. She has an elaborate incised hairstyle and carved necklace, armlets, bangles, crisscrossed cords attached to a chain at her waist, carved multiple rows of flat waist beads and seed rattles around her anklets, which terminates into a fragmented circular base. There is a metal earring inserted into her proper left lobe.Jacques Boussard, Paris, before 1967 to 1990African Mosaic: Selections from the Permanent Collection, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., November 19, 2013–August 12, 2019 (installed November 5, 2014–July 9, 2019)Wedded Bliss: The Marriage of Art and Ceremony, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, April 26-September 14, 2008, no. 51Ader Picard Tajan. 1990. Arts Primitifs, Afrique, Oceanie. Auction catalogue (December 18). Paris: Drout Montaigne, no. 26.Freyer, Bryna M. and Christine Mullen Kreamer. 2010. "The Collection of the National Museum of African Art Smithsonian Institution." Sculpture Review LIX (1), p. 22.Lamp, Frederick. 1999. Art of the Baga: A Drama of Cultural Reinvention. New York: Prestel for The Museum for African Art, p. 124, no. 98.Leuzinger, Elsy. 1972. The Art of Black Africa. London: Studio Vista, no. E25.Leuzinger, Elsy. 1979. Art de l'Afrique Noire. Barcelona: Ediciones Poligrafa, nos. 92-95.Musee de l'Homme. 1967. Arts primitifs dans les ateliers d'artistes. Paris: no. 79.National Museum of African Art. 1999. Selected Works from the Collection of the National Museum of African Art. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, p. 33, no. 14.Richter, Paula Bradstreet (ed). 2008. Wedded Bliss: The Marriage of Art and Ceremony.Salem: Peabody Essex Museum; Hanover: distributed by University Press of New England, p. 65, no. 51.As part of our commitment to accessibility and transparency, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art is placing its collection records online. Please note that some records are incomplete (missing image or content descriptions) and others reflect out-of-date language or systems of thought regarding how to engage with and discuss cultural heritage and the specifics of individual artworks. If you see content requiring immediate action, we will do our best to address it in a timely manner. Please email nmafacuratorial@si.edu if you have any questions.High resolution digital images are not available for some objects. For publication quality photography and permissions, please contact the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at https://africa.si.edu/research/eliot-elisofon-photographic-archives/

Among the Asante and neighboring peoples, voluntary music associations provide entertainment for a variety of occasions, including weddings, funerals and festivals. Osei Bonsu, the most important Asante sculptor of the 20th century, is particularly well known for the drums he created for the Ntan society and the groups of figures that were originally displayed with them. According to Osei Bonsu, many of the motifs on his drums relate to Asante proverbs and refer to the qualities the society seeks in its members or to the society's relationship to the town.Motifs include: Lion support: The use of a powerful animal such as the lion or elephant refers to how the ntan group supports the town.Two breasts: Neither Osei Bonsu nor the elders explained this image but all of Bonsu's drums have breasts.Heart: "Be patient," all association members should have a motherly heartCrescent moon and star: While the star is more reliable, the changeable moon is brighter; musical fashions change like the moon.Round dish and grinding spoon: Grind a palm nut, not cocoyam leaves, or if you are as good as you brag, show it by doing something difficult--like an ntan group playing varied and difficult music.Cock and hen facing each other: "Although the hen knows when it is dawn, she leaves it for the cock to announce" can be applied to the role of men in ntan and the community.Elephant and palm: "Only the elephant can uproot the palm tree" is a motif associated with the power of traditional rulers.Cocoa tree: Many association members are farmers.Snake and frog: "Every part of the frog belongs to the cobra."Snake and bird: Like the puff adder waiting in one spot to catch the hornbill, with patience, one can do the impossible.Man pointing at sign: Now worn, but on other drums, the sign shows name of town commissioning drum.Drum with breasts mounted on the back of a lion. The drum's iconography includes: a man, birds, an elephant, a snake, a heart and a frog, carved in relief. Drum is painted in red, yellow, white and blue.Robert Portman, Highlands, New Jersey, -- to 1981Conversations: African and African American Artworks in Dialogue - From the Collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art and Camille O. and William H. Cosby, Jr., National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, November 7, 2014-January 24, 2016Audible Artworks: Selected Musical Instruments, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., June 25, 2000-April 8, 2001Thinking with Animals, African Images and Perceptions, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., March 24-September 7, 1982Kreamer, Christine Mullen and Adrienne L. Childs (eds). 2014. Conversations: African and African American Artworks in Dialogue from the Collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art and Camille O. and William H. Cosby, Jr. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, p. 238, pl. 132.National Museum of African Art. 2007. 2007-2008 School Calendar: Featuring the new Let's Read about Africa and the Sounds of African Music programs. Museum calendar. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, September 2007.Ross, Doran. 1984. "The Art of Osei Bonsu." African Arts 17 (2), pp. 32-33.As part of our commitment to accessibility and transparency, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art is placing its collection records online. Please note that some records are incomplete (missing image or content descriptions) and others reflect out-of-date language or systems of thought regarding how to engage with and discuss cultural heritage and the specifics of individual artworks. If you see content requiring immediate action, we will do our best to address it in a timely manner. Please email nmafacuratorial@si.edu if you have any questions.High resolution digital images are not available for some objects. For publication quality photography and permissions, please contact the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at https://africa.si.edu/research/eliot-elisofon-photographic-archives/

2/12A native of Sabongida Ora in Edo State, Nigerian modernist Solomon Irein Wangboje was one of the earliest graduates of the Zaria Art Department, and denotes the beginnings of the institution. "Zaria" has since become synonymous with a significant new direction in the history of contemporary Nigerian art, with the formation of the Zaria Arts Society in 1958, whose members included Uche Okeke, Demas Nwoko, Bruce Onobrakpeya and Yusuf Grillo. The Society sought to reconsider the relationship between academic Western art and indigenous art traditions, calling for the merging of Western artistic techniques and local inspirations, often environmental. Their accompanying theory of Natural Synthesis became pivotal to the development of contemporary art in Nigeria and the Art Society strove to give Zaria the ideological, nationalistic direction it lacked, in contrast to the imposed colonialist educational agenda. Though associated with Zaria and loosely with the Society, Wangboje represents an earlier period, before Zaria had this specific ideological direction, though he was instrumental in its future.Wangboje is considered one of the first modern printmakers in Nigeria, but his interest in printmaking was more technical than conceptual. The unobtrusive use of readily available scenes and humanscapes, such as workmen, milk-selling maidens and quotidian subject matter "heighten the desired appreciation of medium and technique, and celebrate form. Thus, his themes or subject matter are as far ranging as his formal presentation...If Wangboje appears to lack stylistic direction it is possibly because the Zaria of his time stressed the striving for technical mastery of medium and process over and above any profound inquiry into questions of artistic identity and formal style." (Okeke-Agulu 89-90)Though Wangboje became an accomplished woodcut artist and a pioneer of contemporary printmaking, he has written extensively on Nigerian art education, distinguishing himself as an innovative educator. Preferring to allow his art to speak through his students rather than his exhibitions, during his retirement he set up arts workshops outside of the university, remaining committed to education until his death in 1998. His works are noted for their rich colors and bold lines, and his silkscreens display an extraordinary depth in spite of the medium's two-dimensional limitations. His woodcuts illustrate popular books on Nigeria art folklore and myth. In this particular work, the warm tones and the angle of the musician’s head and hands express the energy of drumming performances, which punctuate everyday and ceremonial occasions in towns and villages throughout Africa.Okeke-Agulu, Chika. 2012. "The Zaria Art School: From Wangboje to Okpe." Ezumeezu: Essays on Nigeria Art and Architecture. Glassboro, NJ: Goldline & Jacobs, pp. 88-102.Linocut on paper of a seated man with a cylindrical drum on his lap. The colors are black on reddish brown with ocher highlights.Amb. and Mrs. Benjamin Hill Brown, Jr., Alexandria, Virginia, -- to 1976Conversations: African and African American Artworks in Dialogue - From the Collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art and Camille O. and William H. Cosby, Jr., National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, November 7, 2014-January 24, 2016Kreamer, Christine Mullen and Adrienne L. Childs (eds). 2014. Conversations: African and African American Artworks in Dialogue from the Collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art and Camille O. and William H. Cosby, Jr. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, p. 240, pl. 134.As part of our commitment to accessibility and transparency, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art is placing its collection records online. Please note that some records are incomplete (missing image or content descriptions) and others reflect out-of-date language or systems of thought regarding how to engage with and discuss cultural heritage and the specifics of individual artworks. If you see content requiring immediate action, we will do our best to address it in a timely manner. Please email nmafacuratorial@si.edu if you have any questions.High resolution digital images are not available for some objects. For publication quality photography and permissions, please contact the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at https://africa.si.edu/research/eliot-elisofon-photographic-archives/

Limited Edition Variable 1/20The first half of the twentieth century gave rise to widespread experimentation with new media by Africa’s artists. Many of Nigeria’s artists, for example, explored new techniques, including oil painting and printmaking. As elsewhere on the continent, some of these artists received training at local and international art schools, while others were taught in community workshops offered by expatriate artists.Modern African artwork addressed a range of subject matter, from political concerns of the day to depictions of a rapidly transforming landscape due to social and environmental changes.A major artistic transformation occurred in Oshogbo, a Yoruba town in western Nigeria, in the early 1960s. Expatriates Susanne Wenger, Ulli Beier and Georgina Beier introduced new techniques and materials to Yoruba artists and urged them to find their own forms of expression. The workshops focused on printmaking but were intended to help participants learn to support themselves as artists.Tunde Odunlade is a second-generation artist of the Oshogbo school. Like many of his peers, he practices in a diverse set of mediums such as painting, batik, print-making, hand-made paper and fiber work. Though he is most known for his intricate and highly-textured batiks that reflect upon Yoruba traditional adire cloth dying, his print-making, as seen here, reflects similar multi-layered aesthetics of Yoruba art and culture, drawing on modern and traditional daily life in Nigeria.This 1992 limited edition work, Music Lesson, was printed in 2012 and is from the Decades of Printmaking series, hand-picked by the artist--himself a musician--over a four decade span of creativity.One of seven (7) hand-colored prints of varying sizes from the artist’s Decades of Printmaking series, this print features a seated musician on a black and checkered, likely nighttime, background with many human faces inside of their head.Tunde Odunlade, 1992 to 2012Michael Imbimbo, San Antonio, 2012Odunlade, Tunde. 2012. Four Decades of Printmaking. Exhibition brochure. San Antonio: Stone Metal Press.As part of our commitment to accessibility and transparency, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art is placing its collection records online. Please note that some records are incomplete (missing image or content descriptions) and others reflect out-of-date language or systems of thought regarding how to engage with and discuss cultural heritage and the specifics of individual artworks. If you see content requiring immediate action, we will do our best to address it in a timely manner. Please email nmafacuratorial@si.edu if you have any questions.High resolution digital images are not available for some objects. For publication quality photography and permissions, please contact the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at https://africa.si.edu/research/eliot-elisofon-photographic-archives/

This image of King David playing a harp would have been bound in a Bible with the Psalms. In general, this museum does not acquire individual manuscript pages so as not to encourage the dismemberment of books, but this old fragment is an exception. Scribes in an Ethiopian monastery obviously used the back as a practice sheet for calligraphy.Painting on vellum of a man playing an Ethiopian box lute, in a 3/4 pose, wearing a red robe. The headtie and cloak are orange with yellow folds. The hair and beard are white with black lines and he is wearing a rod earring.Joseph and Patricia Brumit, Sun City West, -- to 2004African Mosaic: Celebrating a Decade of Collecting, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., November 19, 2010-November 13, 2013As part of our commitment to accessibility and transparency, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art is placing its collection records online. Please note that some records are incomplete (missing image or content descriptions) and others reflect out-of-date language or systems of thought regarding how to engage with and discuss cultural heritage and the specifics of individual artworks. If you see content requiring immediate action, we will do our best to address it in a timely manner. Please email nmafacuratorial@si.edu if you have any questions.High resolution digital images are not available for some objects. For publication quality photography and permissions, please contact the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at https://africa.si.edu/research/eliot-elisofon-photographic-archives/

While the source of the materials and the superb artistry of this hunting horn can be attributed to Sierra Leone, certain of its features suggest that it was made by a Bullom or Temne artist for a European client. The positioning of its mouthpiece, its suspension lugs, as well as the scenes of a European hunt carved in relief and most likely based upon European prints all indicate the horn was produced for export. This horn is one of only three surviving horns attributed to the same hand. The heraldic shields and inscriptions carved near its base by this unidentified master artist help narrow the dating of its creation to between 1494 and 1500 and identify it as a royal gift from Crown Prince Manuel I of Portugal to King Ferdinand V of Castile and Aragon.West African ivories were coveted luxuries in Europe in the late 15th and 16th centuries and considered worthy as royal gifts. Increased international demand for ivory in subsequent centuries has endangered elephant populations however, giving rise to current international bans on its export and use.Ivory end blown horn with segmented horizontal carvings in tiers from the top to the bottom. The figures are of animals and humans. There are also plant forms (trees) and letters (Greek). Each band is carved with high and low relief objects and separated by lattice, beading or braiding. There are five carved S-shaped ivory loops on the side. Three have metal chains attached.Private collection, FrancePaul and Ruth Tishman, New York, before 1981 to 1984Walt Disney World Co.Visionary: Viewpoints on Africa's Arts, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., November 4, 2017-ongoingAfrican Mosaic: Selections from the Permanent Collection, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., November 19, 2013–August 12, 2019 (installed May 14, 2014-June 8, 2017)The Walt Disney-Tishman African Art Collection Highlights, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., May 21, 2009-June 4, 2014 (deinstalled May 14, 2014)African Vision: The Walt Disney-Tishman African Art Collection, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., February 15, 2007-March 31, 2009Encompassing the Globe: Portugal and the World in the 16th & 17th Centuries, National Museum of African Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., June 23-September 16, 2007; Palais des Beaux-Arts de BruxellesFirst Look: The Walt Disney-Tishman Collection of African Art, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., May 17-December 3, 2006Art of the Personal Object, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., September 24, 1991-April 9, 2007For Spirits and Kings: African Art from the Paul and Ruth Tishman Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1981Hornbeck, Stephanie. 2016. "Ivory: I dentification and Regulation of a Precious Material." National Museum of African Art Conservation Lab publication. p.1.Kreamer, Christine Mullen. 2006. "African Vision: The Walt Disney-Tishman African Art Collection." Tribal Arts 43, p. 86, nos. 11-12.Kreamer, Christine Mullen, Bryna Freyer and Andrea Nicolls. 2007. African Vision: The Walt Disney-Tishman African Art Collection. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, pp. 54, 68-69, fig. 13, no. 15.Levenson, Jay A. (ed). 2007. Encompassing the Globe: Portugal and the World in the 16th & 17th Centuries. Washington, D.C.: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, p. 152, no. A-5.Mellor, S. 2007. From Delicious to Not Quite Right: Subtleties in Discerning the Authenticity of African Art. Objects Specialty Group Postprints, Volume 14 CD. Washington, DC: American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works. p.14.National Museum of African Art. 2007. 2007-2008 School Calendar: Featuring the new Let's Read about Africa and the Sounds of African Music programs. Museum calendar. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, January 2008.Patton, Sharon F. 2005. "Disney-Tishman: Gift to the Smithsonian Institution." Tribal Art X:2 (39), p. 63, no. 5.Patton, Sharon F. and Bryna Freyer. 2008. Treasures 2008. Washington D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, pp. 4-5.Robbins, Warren M. and Nancy Ingram Nooter. 1989. African Art in American Collections. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, p. 154, no. 282.Ross, Doran (ed). 1992. Elephant: The Animal and Its Ivory in African Culture. Los Angeles: Fowler Museum of Cultural History, University of California, p. 293, no. D.Skoda, Hannah, Patrick Lantschner and R. L. J. Shaw (eds). 2012. Contact and Exchange in Later Medieval Europe: Essays in Honour of Malcolm Vale. Rochester: Boydell & Brewer.Visoná, Monica Blackmun, Robin Poyner, Herbert M. Cole and Michael D. Harris. 2001. A History of Art in Africa. New York: Harry N. Abrams, p. 172, no. 6-6.Visoná, Monica Blackmun, Robin Poyner and Herbert M. Cole. 2008. A History of Art in Africa. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, p. 172, no. 6-6.Vogel, Susan (ed). 1981. For Spirits and Kings: African Art from the Paul and Ruth Tishman Collection. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp. 64-67, no. 30.As part of our commitment to accessibility and transparency, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art is placing its collection records online. Please note that some records are incomplete (missing image or content descriptions) and others reflect out-of-date language or systems of thought regarding how to engage with and discuss cultural heritage and the specifics of individual artworks. If you see content requiring immediate action, we will do our best to address it in a timely manner. Please email nmafacuratorial@si.edu if you have any questions.High resolution digital images are not available for some objects. For publication quality photography and permissions, please contact the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at https://africa.si.edu/research/eliot-elisofon-photographic-archives/

Ordinary bells are associated with hunting. Because Kongo hunting dogs cannot bark, they are located by their bells. A different type of hunter is the specialist (nganga) concerned with tracing spiritual forces using an elaborately carved bell. A diviner or healer would use a bell like this one in his invocations summoning the spirits to heal or seek justice. The focus of the nganga's power was an nkisi, a container that is sometimes a figure, which holds the materials that activate spiritual forces that aid the nganga.In public performances, the nganga would wear a striking costume, jewelry and regalia and would dance to music from whistles, gongs, rattles and bells. The bells' sound came from the action of projecting wood clappers, which are missing from the bell shown here.This bell's handle, a figure carved in a seated position, conveyed a message for those immersed in Kongo ritual culture. While today the exact significance of the combination of turned head, upraised knees and crossed arms is uncertain, one meaning of the arm gesture is clear: "I have no more to say."Round wood bell with convex sides, 3 holes on the bottom, a stone rattle inside, topped by a seated figure of a man with arms crossed on his upraised knees.René Van der Straete, Belgium, 1972Lawrence Gussman, New York, 1972 to 1998Earth Matters: Land as Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., April 22, 2013-February 23, 2014; Fowler Museum at UCLA, University of California, Los Angeles, April 19-September 14, 2014; Bowdoin College Museum of Art, October 15, 2015-March 9, 2016A Personal Journey: Central African Art from the Lawrence Gussman Collection, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY, September 30, 2001-January 13, 2002; Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK, February 10-April 7, 2002; National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., September 29, 2001-August 14, 2002New Acquisitions: Gifts from the Lawrence Gussman Collection, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., December 14, 1998-May 5, 1999Astonishment and Power, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., April 28, 1993-January 2, 1994Coleman, Patrick ed. 2015. The Art of Music. San Diego: San Diego Museum of Art.MacGaffey, Wyatt. 1993. Astonishment and Power. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, p. 57, no. 35.Milbourne, Karen E. 2013. Earth Matters: Land as Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa. New York: The Monacelli Press; Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, p. 112, no. 88.Robbins, Warren and Nancy I. Nooter. 1989. African Art in American Collections. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, p. 362, no. 941As part of our commitment to accessibility and transparency, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art is placing its collection records online. Please note that some records are incomplete (missing image or content descriptions) and others reflect out-of-date language or systems of thought regarding how to engage with and discuss cultural heritage and the specifics of individual artworks. If you see content requiring immediate action, we will do our best to address it in a timely manner. Please email nmafacuratorial@si.edu if you have any questions.High resolution digital images are not available for some objects. For publication quality photography and permissions, please contact the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at https://africa.si.edu/research/eliot-elisofon-photographic-archives/

Artists living in the northeastern forest regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo have carved several types of harps. This one has traits typical of Zande style: a beautifully carved head with detailed coiffure and earrings, and a carefully stitched animal hide that covers the sound box. Five pegs, separately carved and fitted into the neck, secured and tuned the now-missing strings, which would have been made of bast or hairs from the tail of a giraffe.The Zande carve other objects such as bowls and stools, but harps are among their finest artistic achievements. In the 19th century German ethnographer Dr. Georg Schweinfurth described harps used by the Zande and published an engraving of a Zande musician holding a harp with a carved head. These musicians played for the entertainment of groups, reciting details of their travels and experiences as wandering minstrels. Research in the 20th century by Evans-Pritchard describes harps as being the particular favorites of Zande notables.Wood five-stringed harp with an hourglass shaped sound box covered with stitched animal hide and a long, curved neck into which 5 separately carved pegs are inserted. At the top of the neck is a carved head with an elaborate coiffure and earrings.K. John Hewett, LondonEntwistle, LondonJames Freeman, Kyoto, 1985Visionary: Viewpoints on Africa's Arts, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., November 4, 2017-ongoingConversations: African and African American Artworks in Dialogue - From the Collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art and Camille O. and William H. Cosby, Jr., National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, November 7, 2014-January 24, 2016Kreamer, Christine Mullen and Adrienne L. Childs (eds). 2014. Conversations: African and African American Artworks in Dialogue from the Collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art and Camille O. and William H. Cosby, Jr. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, p. 235, pl. 129.National Museum of African Art. 1999. Selected Works from the Collection of the National Museum of African Art. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, p. 148, no. 107.National Museum of African Art. 2007. 2007-2008 School Calendar: Featuring the new Let's Read about Africa and the Sounds of African Music programs. Museum calendar. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, September 2007.As part of our commitment to accessibility and transparency, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art is placing its collection records online. Please note that some records are incomplete (missing image or content descriptions) and others reflect out-of-date language or systems of thought regarding how to engage with and discuss cultural heritage and the specifics of individual artworks. If you see content requiring immediate action, we will do our best to address it in a timely manner. Please email nmafacuratorial@si.edu if you have any questions.High resolution digital images are not available for some objects. For publication quality photography and permissions, please contact the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at https://africa.si.edu/research/eliot-elisofon-photographic-archives/