English: Metropolitan Museum of Art Hoddu LC 89 4 473 PC-004

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/501091

From the Metropolitan Museum of Art: "This hoddu, a kind of lute, comes from the music-making practices of the Fulbe people who reside in the Mandé region of West Africa. Mandé refers to the Mandé empire (1235-1469 A.D.), whose geographical shadow includes present-day Mali, Senegal, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and the Gambia. This lute also belongs to a wide web of similar instruments across North Africa and Northern sub-Saharan Africa.

This particular hoddu has a narrow, trough-like, hourglass-shaped resonator carved from a single piece of wood, whose width is about the same length as its height. An animal hide is stretched over the resonator, creating a soundboard. This soundboard is fastened with wooden pegs. The instrument’s straight neck pierces the membrane at the upper end of the resonator. A fan-shaped bridge, protruding through a soundhole cut into the membrane, is attached to the bottom of the neck, whose end hangs freely inside the resonator. It has three strings, two long and one short, attached to the neck with rings, all of which are made from animal hide.

Both the shape of the bridge and the number of strings is distinct to the Fulbe hoddu. As is the case with other lutes found in the Mandé region, the name hoddu derives from the word for “finger” in Pular, the language spoken by the Fulbe, which is hondu. Other examples include the koni, which shares its name with the word for finger in the Maninka language spoken by Malinke people, and the konting, which takes its name from konondingo, the word for finger in the Mandinka language."