Loko song

Ethnomusicological sound recording made by Cootje van Oven. Loko song, accompanied by two bundoma and one gbabina. The photograph picture the two bundoma. The meaning of the song is: "If a man goes to bed without calling his wife indoors, he is asking for trouble". The two bundoma players sing in turn, but occasionally the two voices join. It appears to be a kind of sung conversation between the two. The song is ended by the first bundoma player hitting the bottom of his bundoma. A bundoma is a metal box with a number of metal tongues fixed on top of it (the longest in the centre, the tapering off regularly on both sides). The box has an extension through which small metal wires are threaded. The player plucks the tongues with his thumbs while shaking the box up and down to obtain a rattle from some pebbles inside the box and from the wires threaded through the extension. The tongues are actually flattened-out umbrella stays. These two bundoma both had 9 tongues. Length and width of the first bundoma were 11" and 6"; the length of its extension was 4.5". Corresponding measurements of the second bundoma: 10", 6.5" and 6.5". A gbabina is a U-shaped piece of metal played with a metal beater. This one was 22.5" long (measured right around the curve); the distance between its ends was 7".

Further Information

  • Type: Sound Recording, Musical instruments
  • Object: Loko song
  • Materials: No Data / Other
  • Culture Group: Loko
  • Dimensions: No Data
  • Production Date: 1965.12.24
  • Associated Places: Rokulan, Sanda Tenraran Chiefdom, Bombali District [Place Recorded]
  • Associated People: Cootje van Oven [Sound Recordist]; Herb Clark [Sound Recordist]; Sorie Conteh [Chief singer and bundoma player]; Lamina Bangura [Second singer and bundoma player]; Tebu Conteh [Gbabina player, a young boy]
  • Museum: Cootje Van Oven Collection
  • Accession Number: CVO:116

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