International Jazz Banjo Newsletter

Is the African prototype of the New World gourd banjo lost forever or does it still exist? It was in 2000 that I finally completed my field and deskwork on the history of the origin of the New World gourd banjo. Since this time, I’ve travelled and joined conferences in the following countries: Gambia, Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Sweden, USA and Belgium. In all these countries I introduced the Akonting lute instrument and explained to the audience why I feel it is an instrument worth study in as far as the search for the prototype of the New World banjo is concerned.
Since then, I collaborated with Ulf Jagfors, and together we have documented and recorded the Akonting dance culture and music that have received a great attention especially from the American scholars. Many museums and private individuals have now had the Akonting lute among their banjo exhibitions. I would like to express my appreciation of meeting most of the banjo collector’s community, who had received me with warm welcome the first time I had the opportunity to meet them in Boston USA. The encouragement I received from every one of them, inspired me more.
I fully agreed, the search for the origin of the New World gourd banjo is a complex exercise, and very time and money consuming. But this does not mean we have to stand aloof from the struggle to find its prototype. With a broad framework of co-operation and network, I think, a lot can be achieved. It is widely accepted today that the New World banjo developed from an African prototype, and most likely from the Senegambian region of West Africa. Scholars who researched and documented facts on the Ngoni, Hoddu, Akonting and the Buchundu lutes of the Senegambian region further strengthen this theory.
All these lute instruments and many others that I did not mention share some similarities with the cultures of the New World gourd banjo. Yet, as far as my twenty-nine years of research on these instruments is concerned, their history, cultures and social significances are dieing and nothing is being done to preserve them. This is why Ulf Jagfors and I have taken the initiative to start a Chordophone Museum in the Gambia to collect, document and preserve all the Chordophone instruments found in the region, together with their wonderful folk cultures.
The goal is to make these instruments and their cultures accessible to all for research, studies etc. But we cannot do it alone, we need your assistance to achieve this our goal. A cultural committee has now been formed in Gambia and Senegal (Casamance) to work with us on this matter.

Daniel Jutta
Visit http://members01.chello.se/abzu/akonting/origin.html