The
Ngoni

The ngoni is a small West African plucked lute from Mali and the surrounding Sahel, with a hollowed-out calabash body covered in dried animal skin, a long wooden neck without frets, and traditionally four to seven strings. It is one of the oldest stringed instruments in West Africa, with documentary references in 14th-century Mali. When enslaved West Africans were brought to the Caribbean and the American South, the ngoni’s descendants — the akonting, the xalam, eventually the banjo — travelled with them.

Within Mande culture the ngoni is the instrument of the jeli — hereditary historians, praise-singers, and oral genealogists who carry generations of family history in memory. Its sound is bright, plucked, melodically restless. Slower repertoires exist within the tradition — moonlit fireside playing, contemplative solo work — and that is the territory our piece will sit in: one player, four strings, a calabash, and the long Sahel evening.

A new piece for this tradition is in preparation. Subscribe on YouTube to be notified when it releases.