Mende performance

Ethnomusicological sound recording made by Cootje van Oven. Mende storyteller-singer-dancer giving a solo performance, with vocal and instrumental accompaniment. The item is accompanied by three shegbureh, one large drum and one small drum. This song is not so much a story as a greeting and "fun song" with which to dance. The dance was a vigorous, happy step-touch from side to side. The performer uses very expressive, gentle hands as he dances. This man is a farmer, but a story-teller like him could just as easily be of another occupation. For proper story-telling, he would have to have apprentices with him. The performer is pictured in the photograph. The shegbureh, apparently is always played by women, is a stalked gourd surrounded by a network of beads or buttons (occasionally shells) on strings. The end of the strings is held in one hand, the stalk of the gourd in the other. Rhythmic movements of the gourd produce the desired rattle of the beads or buttons against the gourd.

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Further Information

  • Type: Sound Recording, Musical instruments
  • Object: Mende performance
  • Materials: No Data / Other
  • Culture Group: Mende
  • Dimensions: No Data
  • Production Date: 1966.12.21
  • Associated Places: Banda juma, Sowa Chiefdom, Pujehun District [Place recorded]
  • Associated People: Cootje van Oven [Sound Recordist]; Herb Clark [Sound Recordist]; Isath [Shegbureh]; Mariama Conteh [Shegbureh]; Thasa Conteh [Shegbureh]
  • Museum: Cootje Van Oven Collection
  • Accession Number: CVO:252

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