begena | Photographer: Andreas Richter | Rights management: Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike 4.0 International
The body of the instrument is a deep box made of wooden panels, which is completely enclosed by the membrane drawn over the opening and bound together in several seams. Two square longitudinal arms diverging towards the crossbar. The edge of the board is semi-circularly recessed at the points where the arms pass through. Ten front pegs in a peg holder plate widened in the centre of the crossbar. Ten strings. The lower tailpiece is a cylindrical wooden rod not resting on the top, the ends of which are attached to the outside with two wide skin straps running through the membrane and the back of the body. A high, angular bridge. Pieces of skin strap inserted from below between the string guides. The entire instrument is coloured red. The three arms are carved with long patterned bands. Two handle-like extensions carved at the ends of the crossbar. from Ulrich Wegner: Afrikanische Saiteninstrumente, Staatliche Museen Berlin - SPK, 1984 (Appendix Object Catalogue)
