akonting

plural akontings · alternative ekonting

1. A folk lute of the Jola people of West Africa; a banjo-like instrument with a skin-headed gourd body, two long melody strings, and one short drone string.

   But there’s no less spirit in the singing and thumb piano playing of Ruth Akello, an unheralded Ugandan, or in the banjo-like akonting playing of the Jatta family, in Gambia.

   2009 March 2, The New York Times, “New CDs”, in New York Times