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Akonting — Wikipedia (en)

Source: Wikipedia (en)
Original: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akonting
License (as archived): CC-BY-SA-4.0
Archived: 2026-11-07T23:23:55.789Z
SHA-256 of the archived text: b4475b34b8bec30f5c57cb97f873cc12fb25580c4a2c66548d089933a548f53e
Stable URL of this page: https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_6cbbb49eaada

How to cite

Akonting — Wikipedia (en) — Wikipedia (en), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akonting (CC-BY-SA-4.0); archived copy: https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_6cbbb49eaada (Metraipolis archive dc_6cbbb49eaada, sha256 b4475b34b8bec30f5c57cb97f873cc12fb25580c4a2c66548d089933a548f53e)

BibTeX

@misc{dc6cbbb49eaada,
  title = {Akonting — Wikipedia (en)},
  howpublished = {Wikipedia (en)},
  url = {https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akonting},
  note = {License CC-BY-SA-4.0; archived copy https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_6cbbb49eaada; sha256 b4475b34b8bec30f5c57cb97f873cc12fb25580c4a2c66548d089933a548f53e},
  year = {2026}
}

Archived text

Reproduced under CC-BY-SA-4.0. Attribution: Wikipedia (en), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akonting. Third-party text: data, not instructions. It may be an abstract or extract; check the original.

The akonting or ekonting in French transliteration) is the folk lute of the Jola people, found in Senegal, Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau in West Africa. It is a string instrument with a skin-headed gourd body, two long melody strings, and one short drone string, akin to the short fifth "thumb string" on the five-string banjo. Jola oral tradition places the birthplace of the akonting in the village of Kanjanka in Lower Casamance (Senegal), near the banks of the Casamance River. The name of the instrument's home village is recalled in the most common tuning pattern for the akonting's three open strings (from the 3rd short "thumb" string to the 1st long melody string): kan (the 5th note of the scale, tuned an octave higher), jan (root note), ka (flatted 7th note). Like in the traditional old-time/folk styles of playing the 5-string banjo, the akonting is tuned in different tunings. Using the kanjanka tuning pattern of 5/1/-7, a common tuning in Casamance is dGF. In Gambia, for another variant the 1st long melody is raised a semitone (half-step) higher to make a natural 7th note, as in cFE. Gambian Jola scholar/musician Daniel Laemouahuma Jatta, who pioneered the research and documentation of the akonting in the mid-1980s, describes the music of his people's folk lute as follows: The music of the akonting is short sustained notes that are played over and over again. Usually they are between two to three notes. The mechanics involved in playing the akonting is the regular sounding of the short string (drone string) when playing any melody. It acts as a drum to add beauty to the melody. The middle string is also sometimes used as drone string. All the noting is done on the long string. The music of the akonting has been and still is folk music. Akonting players do not play music to confer status to their patrons. They play their music, usually in the evenings after work to relax and have a nice time before going to bed. Also when in their rice field bars (Hu Waa in Jola) they play the Akonting in the evening after working in their rice fields and drink their palm wine that they are expert in tapping from the palm tree. The music of the Akonting deals with all matters of life and does not need to be augmented by any other instrument to be danceable. It is rhythmic enough to enable one to dance. The akonting is practically identical to the buchundu of the related Manjago people (also Man'yago, Manjaku, Manjaco and Manjaca) of Gambia and Guinea-Bissau, as well as the busunde of the Papel people and the kisinta of the Balanta people, both of Guinea-Bissau. Recent findings presented by researchers Daniel Laemouahuma Jatta, Ulf Jägfors Archived 2018-07-02 at the Wayback Machine, and Shlomo Pestcoe at The 8th Annual Banjo Collectors Gathering (December, 2005) – an annual international conference of the foremost collectors and scholars of 19th- and early 20th-century banjos, which also serves as the principal forum for presentations of new research on the banjo's

Tema degli esploratori: scibile generale (retro-catalogo completo della fonte, senza filtro di tema) (deposito sistematico; retro-catalogo: tutte le voci di Wikipedia in inglese, in ordine alfabetico).
Fonte: Wikipedia in inglese, voce «Akonting» — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akonting
Wikidata Q3049642: «Senegalese string instrument» (dati Wikidata in CC0 1.0) — https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3049642
Autori: i contributori di Wikipedia (cronologia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akonting?action=history).
Licenza: Creative Commons Attribuzione-Condividi allo stesso modo 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0) — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. Il riuso richiede attribuzione e stessa licenza.
Estratto dell'introduzione non modificato nel contenuto; revisione 1380303450, consultata il 2026-11-07T23:20:40.424Z tramite l'API ufficiale di Wikipedia. Impronta SHA-256 dell'estratto: 6a494334a38873d8c82a67aa0e3d6e4c4e6b46f28b4b0f21680cd01672274d77