Houses and Musical Instruments, Senegal, early 18th cent.

Description

Based on Barbot, Guiriot ou Negre Jouant du Balafo (Griot or Negro playing the balafon); on top, inset of balafon: 1. instrument musical des negres nommé Balafo; 2. Huttes, ou Maisons des Negres du Sénégal. Barbot says . . . . that the Griots are the only ones who have the glorious privilege of carrying the 'olamba, the royal drum, which is of an extraordinary size in all of its dimensions, and they march to war in front of the king with this instrument . . . (pp. 222-23; our translation).

Source

M. De La Harpe, Abrége de l'histoire générale des voyages (Paris, 1780), vol. 2, facing p. 223. (Copy in Library Company of Philadelphia)

Language

French

Rights

Image is in the public domain. Metadata is available under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International.

Identifier

LCP-39

Spatial Coverage

Africa--Western Savanna

Item sets

Pre-Colonial Africa: Society, Polity, Culture

Citation

"Houses and Musical Instruments, Senegal, early 18th cent.", Slavery Images: A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Early African Diaspora, accessed September 26, 2023, http://slaveryimages.org/s/slaveryimages/item/1631
Based on Barbot, Guiriot ou Negre Jouant du Balafo (Griot or Negro playing the balafon); on top, inset of balafon: 1. instrument musical des negres nommé Balafo; 2. Huttes, ou Maisons des Negres du Sénégal. Barbot says . . . . that the Griots are the only ones who have the glorious privilege of carrying the 'olamba, the royal drum, which is of an extraordinary size in all of its dimensions, and they march to war in front of the king with this instrument . . . (pp. 222-23; our translation).
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