Wooden Oboe or Algiata, Northern Nigeria

This wooden oboe has four holes and a tin and reed mouthpiece. It is a wind instrument (aerophone). Similar instruments that are played by blowing were used widely throughout West Africa. Many reed instruments like this were made from hollow plant stems. This instrument comes from Missan, Northern Nigeria, which is either a place or an ethnic group (probably a Hausa related group). The word 'algiata' may be a corrupt spelling of an indigenous term.

Credit/copyright
© National Museums Liverpool

Accession number
National Museums Liverpool, Ethnology Collection 21.1.1925

Themes
Africa before Transatlantic Enslavement