kita | Photographer: Susanna Schulz | Rights management: Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike 4.0 International
With 8 damaged strings. The handle is a female figure clothed and decorated with fabric, glass beads, copper rings and brass wire. An elongated, deep bowl with longitudinal walls that merge with the base in a curve. Eight diagonally drilled string guide perforations. The string cord [is] only partially preserved (since replaced). One of its ends is looped into a knot behind an outer perforation, into which strips of fabric and cotton wool are tied, while the other [is] wrapped around a stem extension carved lengthways. A leather loop attached to the bottom of the bowl. Three small cord loops carrying iron spirals are suspended in this loop. A linear and punctual red colouring of the inner shell base. A large, fully carved female figure is attached to the stem. One leg [is] broken off, the other movable. Dressed in a cloth apron and adorned with red pearl necklaces. Metal rings [can be seen] on the right ankle and forearm. A cord-like hair insert on the head. "Massansa in Ussukuma". from Ulrich Wegner: Afrikanische Saiteninstrumente, Staatliche Museen Berlin - SPK, 1984 (Appendix object catalogue)
