Limba weeding song

Ethnomusicological sound recording made by Cootje van Oven. A Limba song performed to encourage farmers during weeding of both upland and swamp rice. In this recording, the singer also plays the inkali and is accompanied by two nasung players (both of whom also play the kenken), and a female chorus. The inkali is a hollow log with length-wise slits, hit with two (in this case soft-headed) sticks. The nasung is a long wooden cylindrical drum with two skins, one of which is beaten with a light and gentle stick. The stick is bent and kept in its curved shape by means of a piece of string. The kenken is a piece of metal bent to a conical shape with a handle at the top. It is held by the handle and knocked with a ring on the thumb. The ring is called masulka (plural masulkai). More usually among Limba musicians, a kenken of this shape will be hit with a metal beater instead of a ring, butthe present arrangement makes it possible for the instrument to be played with the left hand only, thus leaving the right hand of the same player free to beatr the drum. There appears to be some similarity with the practice of some other tribes, whose musicians use smaller two-bladed pieces of metal suspended from the left hand and knocked with rings on the fingers while beating a drum with the right hand. The inkali is 33.5" loong, its diameter is 10.5". Length of the first nasung is 37", diameter of its drumskin 6". Other nasung length is just over 40", diameter of drumskin 6". Lenth of first kenken, including handle, 12.5". The other one 13.5".

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Further Information

  • Type: Sound Recording, Musical instruments
  • Object: Limba weeding song
  • Materials: No Data / Other
  • Culture Group: Limba
  • Dimensions: No Data
  • Production Date: 1966.04.12
  • Associated Places: Yagala, near Kabala, Koinadugu District [Place Recorded][Origin of item]
  • Associated People: Cootje van Oven [Sound Recordist]; Herb Clark [Sound Recordist]; Gogo Sesay [Lead singer and Inkali]; Seme Kamara [Nasung and Kenken]; Karemu Sesay [Nasung and Kenken]
  • Museum: Cootje Van Oven Collection
  • Accession Number: CVO:196

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