The goje (the Hausa name for the instrument) is one of the many names for a variety of one or one-stringed

fiddles A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin or a bass. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially syn ...

from

West Africa West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Gha ...

, played by groups such as the Yoruba in Sakara music and west African groups that inhabit the

Sahel The Sahel region (; ), or Sahelian acacia savanna, is a Biogeography, biogeographical region in Africa. It is the Ecotone, transition zone between the more humid Sudanian savannas to its south and the drier Sahara to the north. The Sahel has a ...

. Snakeskin or lizard skin covers a

gourd Gourds include the fruits of some flowering plant species in the family Cucurbitaceae, particularly '' Cucurbita'' and '' Lagenaria''. The term refers to a number of species and subspecies, many with hard shells, and some without. Many gourds ha ...

bowl, and a

horsehair Horsehair is the long hair growing on the Mane (horse), manes and Tail (horse), tails of horses. It is used for various purposes, including upholstery, brushes, the Bow (music), bows of musical instruments, a hard-wearing Textile, fabric called ...

string is suspended on

bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

. The goje is played with a

bowstring A bowstring joins the two ends of the bow stave and launches the arrow. Desirable properties include light weight, strength, resistance to abrasion, and resistance to water. Mass has most effect at the center of the string; of extra mass in th ...

. The goje is commonly used to accompany song, and is usually played as a solo instrument, although it also features prominent in ensembles with other West African string, wind or percussion instruments, including the

Shekere The shekere (from Yoruba Ṣẹ̀kẹ̀rẹ̀) is a percussion instrument consisting of a dried gourd with beads or cowries woven into a net covering the gourd. There are multiple ways to produce sounds with the instrument. It can be shaken or ...

calabash Calabash (; ''Lagenaria siceraria''), also known as bottle gourd, white-flowered gourd, long melon, birdhouse gourd, New Guinea bean, New Guinea butter bean, Tasmania bean, and opo squash, is a vine grown for its fruit. It can be either harvest ...

drum,

talking drum The talking drum is an hourglass-shaped drum from West Africa, which can be used as a form of speech surrogacy by regulating its pitch and rhythm to mimic the tone and prosody of human speech. It has two drumheads connected by leather t ...

, or Ney. The instrument is tied to various pre-Islamic Sahelian rituals around jinn possession, such as the Bori and Hauka traditions of the Maguzawa Hausa, Zarma, Borori, and Songhay. These instruments are held in high esteem and are their use are linked to the spirit world, or as a carrier for voices aimed at or from the spirit world. The various names by which the goje is known by include goge or goje ( Hausa, Zarma), gonjey ( Dagomba, Gurunsi), gonje, ( Mamprusi, Dagomba), njarka ( Songhay), n'ko ( Bambara, Mandinka and other

Mande languages The Mande languages are a family of languages spoken in several countries in West Africa by the Mandé peoples. They include Maninka (Malinke), Mandinka, Soninke, Bambara, Kpelle, Jula (Dioula), Bozo, Mende, Susu, and Vai. There are ar ...

), riti ( Fula, Serer), and nyanyeru or nyanyero. Among the Hausa, another smaller fiddle called the kukkuma exists, whose use is associated with more secular acts, but it played in a similar way to that of the slightly larger and esteemed goje. File:Nyanyeru or Riti.jpg, Nyanyeru, a Fulbe musical instrument, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art File:Goge (or goje), as observed by P. G. Harris.jpg, A ''goge'' as illustrated by P. G. Harris in his 1932 article ''Notes on Drums and Musical Instruments Seen in Sokoto Province, Nigeria''

References

*Liner notes by Steve Jay in "Ghana: Ancient Ceremonies: Dance Music & Songs," Nonesuch Explorer Series, 1979, re-released, 2002. catalog number or ASIN: B00006C75Y

External links

"Goge" at ASZA.com''Nyanyeru''
at Musical Instrument Museum Drumhead lutes West African musical instruments Bowed instruments Yoruba musical instruments Bowed monochords Speech-surrogate instruments Hausa musical instruments String instruments One-string fiddles {{Africa-music-stub

See also

References

External links