bowl lyre
Illustration — Endongo • Illustration — Man with an endongo The endongo is a musical instrument, considered the national instrument of the Baganda people of Uganda. It is a member of a family of which can be found, with variations, in many areas throughout East Africa. The endongo is specifically a Kiganda plate lyre, with the face of the bowl covered with the skin of either a monitor lizard or Indian condor.
Also recorded as Entongoli · Kora
bowl lyre
Collectie Wereldmuseum (v/h Tropenmuseum), part of the National Museum of World Cultures · Collectie Stichting Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Field
- bowl lyre
- Region
- Uganda
- Related practice
- skin
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Illustration — Endongo • Illustration — Man with an endongo The endongo is a musical instrument, considered the national instrument of the Baganda people of Uganda. It is a member of a family of which can be found, with variations, in many areas throughout East Africa. The endongo is specifically a Kiganda plate lyre, with the face of the bowl covered with the skin of either a monitor lizard or Indian condor.
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wikidata · Q5376376
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History
History
The endongo is found within the interlacustrine area of Uganda, which are “the kingdom-states around the northern, western, and northern shores of Lake Victoria and the area between Lake Victoria and the chain of lakes: Lake Albert, Lake Edward, Lake Kivu and Lake Tanganyika”. The bowl lyre present in Uganda is played by two particular tribes, the Basoga, who name the instrument entongoli, and the Baganda, who call it the endongo. The bowl lyre can be heard at school festivals, and at weddings when playing music to lead a divorce dance. It is mainly played by men such as griots (or praise-singers), and is played either solo or to accompany songs of praise. Today, few endongos are manufactured as it is considered one of the most difficult instruments to make.
How or when the lyre was introduced to the area that is now Uganda is unknown. Wachsmann (1971) speculates that the instrument emerged with the Luo migrations from Sudan in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. It was then adopted by the Basoga, and afterwards, finally reached the court of the Baganda King Mutesa I.
Construction and Design
Construction and Design
Similar to other instruments from the lyre family, the endongo has a body supported by two arms which rise from each side of the sound box, with strings passing from the base of the sound box to the yoke. The endongo's sound box is in the shape of a bowl, hence the term bowl lyre. It has an almost hemispherical shape, and is generally carved from the hardwood makembya tree (also known as olusambya). In the past, the skin of the monitor lizard (locally known as enswaswa) was used to cover the bowl to act as a sound board. The monitor lizard is currently a protected species
Audio Examples (External Links)
Audio Examples (External Links)
Songs with violin bowl lyre and a humorous song with drums from the Ganda of Buganda district (Central Province), Uganda By Various Artists recorded in 1950, From Smithsonian Folkways Joel Sebunjo: "Heart of a Griot" Royal Endongo Music of Uganda Endongo (bowl lyre) scale, sung by Albert Ssempeke Part of Peter Cooke Uganda Recordings "Nnakatanza" performed by Evaristo Muyinda Historical song, sung to the bowl lyre endongo
This is an image from
Dorothy6161
This is an image from
Dorothy6161
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Uganda
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bowl lyre is associated with Uganda.
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Bowl lyre is connected to 2 other published records in the VALÉORINE Encyclopedia.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
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