Calabash Guitar

This is a decorated calabash guitar with a bow for playing the single string. A wooden stick forms the neck of the guitar and hanging threads have been added as decoration. It comes from West Africa. Dried calabashes or gourds were widely used to make bowls and bottles as well as musical instruments.

Credit/copyright:   © National Museums Liverpool
Accession number:   National Museums Liverpool, Ethnology Collection 22.11.24.8

Themes
Africa before Transatlantic Enslavement