sansa
- Museum number
- Af1890,1206.1
- Description
-
Musical instrument, sansa, the body of light wood in the form of a half cylinder, hollow with a projection at one end; on the flat side are ten strips of cane which can be tuned by sliding them backwards or forwards.
- Production date
- 1890 (before)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 39 centimetres
-
Width: 18 centimetres
-
Depth: 10 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- Register slip records: "Musical instrument. Biti".
The only BMS Congo stations opened by the Baptist Missionary Society by 1890 (the date of this gift) were at San Salvador in Angola, Wathen near the Stanley Falls, and upstream at Arthington (at Stanley Pool), Bolobo, and Lukolela. Monsembe, Bopoto and Yakusu further upstream along the river followed in the 1890s, as did Kibokolo inland from San Salvador in Angola.. It is therefore likely that the objects given to the BM by the BMS is 1890 came from one of these five areas, though it is also possible that some were the result of the various exploratory journeys on the BMS steamship that George Grenfell made mapping the rivers of the Congo in these years.
For a wood-engraving of three very similar rectangular sansas from the Bakongo, see Herbert Ward ,'Five years among the Congo Cannibals', London 1890, p.68.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1890
- Acquisition notes
- Af1890,1206.1 to 49 were given by the Baptist Missionary Society, and all come from Africa. The first two are musical instruments, and are recorded to come from West Africa; the rest are recorded to come from the Congo.
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Af1890,1206.1