Ennanga

This instrument was collected by Archdeacon Walker, from the Church Missionary Society, between 1893 and 1910. It is an arched harp made with a wooden bowl-shaped resonator covered with animal skin stretched and secured with gut lacing to a patch of animal skin on the back. The soundtable has a small soundhole. The angled neck is made of wood and it rests on the bottom of the resonator bowl, piercing the soundtable. It has eight wooden tuning pegs and strings made of vegetable fibers. The strings also pierce the soundtable and are attached to a strip of wood (stringholder) that passes along the length of the bowl and projects at each end. There are eight rings made of reptile-skin that are meant to be strategically placed below each peg so that the respective string can touch the ring and cause a buzzing sound. Some rings are displaced and others still retain a small wooden sliver that is meant to keep them in place.