The three principal instruments played by hunters’ musicians in Mali’s Wasulu region are the six-stringed donso ngoni (hunters’ harp), a cylindrical metal scraper known as the karinyan, and a shaker called the kusuba.
A hunters’ musician learns by becoming a student apprentice to a master musician. Hunters’ music is typically heard at large gatherings at which a lead donso ngoni player moves around a circle of onlookers, including the assembled hunters, playing and singing while his apprentices
follow closely behind dancing, singing, and accompanying him on donso ngoni, karinyan, and kusuba.
About the Instruments
Two musicians playing the donso ngoniThroughout West Africa there is a wide variety of harps, many of which are made of calabash gourds. The donso ngoni [DOHN-so nGOH-nee] is a harp with a body made out of a large calabash gourd covered with cowskin. The neck of the instrument is a long wooden stick that passes through the gourd. Six strings made of nylon fishing line run between the neck and the gourd and are plucked by the musician to produce sound. The donso ngoni player plays three of the strings with the thumb and index finger of his left hand (positioned at the base of the neck) and plays the other three strings with the thumb of his right hand, which is positioned higher up on the neck. At the top of the neck is a sheet of flattened metal with small metal rings attached; the vibrations of the plucked strings cause these to rattle, creating a buzzing sound while the donso ngoni is played. This slight distortion of an instrument’s “pure” sound is an aesthetic preference in many parts of West Africa.
A musician playing the karinyanThe karinyan [kah-reen-YAHN] is a metal tube with carved notches that is scraped in an up-and-down motion with a thin metal rod, much like a güiro in Latin American music. The steady rhythms of the karinyan are one of the most distinctive features of hunters’ music.
KusubaThe kusuba [koo-soo-BAH] is a woven bamboo shaker with a metal or wooden bottom. It is filled with either pebbles or bottle caps and shaken by a handle on top. Both the karinyan and the kusuba are percussion instruments.