Sierra Leone Heritage ~ Reanimating cultural heritage

Ethnomusicological sound recording made by Cootje van Oven. Mende song, accompanied by the shegbureh, performed by an all female group. The singers can be seen in the photograph. The shegbureh, apparently always played by women, is a stalked gourd surrounded ...[more]

Ethnomusicological sound recording made by Cootje van Oven. Mende song, accompanied by the shegbureh, performed by an all female group. The singers can be seen in the photograph. The shegbureh, apparently always played by women, is a stalked gourd surrounded by a network of beads or buttons (occasionally shells) on strings. The end of the strings is held in one hand, the stalk of the gourd in the other. Rhythmic movements of the gourd produce the desired rattle of the beads or buttons against the gourd. In this shegbureh, the circumference of the gourd is 15.5" (or 17.5") and the length of the stalk 6.5".

Ethnomusicological sound recording made by Cootje van Oven. Mende song, accompanied by the shegbureh, performed by an all female group. The singers can be seen in the photograph. The shegbureh, apparently always played by women, is a stalked gourd surrounded by a network of beads or buttons (occasionally shells) on strings. The end of the strings is held in one hand, the stalk of the gourd in the other. Rhythmic movements of the gourd produce the desired rattle of the beads or buttons against the gourd. In this shegbureh, the circumference of the gourd is 15.5" (or 17.5") and the length of the stalk 6.5". [less]