Black and white lantern slide showing a Congolese man. He is sitting on a wooden box, and holding a box on his knee, into which a circular hole has been cut. Five lengths of wood protrude from the side of the object. The man wears a head-wrap, and wears a thick bracelet. A Congolese boy can be seen in the doorway of a brick building behind him, in the shorts and shirt provided by missionaries of the Congo Balolo Mission. The object that the man holds may be a marimbula (or mbira), a musical instrument that originated in Cuba in the late nineteenth century, made by African slaves. Sound is produced by plucking tongues (keys) made from springy wood, attached to a wooden box which is often hit to create rhythm. Although the instrument had its roots in Cuba, it spread throughout the Americas, Carribbean and Africa, taking many different physical forms. This slide comes from a collection generated by missionaries working for the Congo Balolo Mission, a mission begun in 1889 under the supervision of the East London Training Institute for Home and Foreign Missions that developed into the interdenominational evangelical mission Regions Beyond Missionary Union after 1900.
Format
lantern slides 8.2 x 8.2cm lantern slides photographs
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