Angola: Anthropology Museum Hosts Musical Instruments Exhibition

Angola: Anthropology Museum Hosts Musical Instruments Exhibition

Angola Press Agency (Luanda)

January 9, 2007
Posted to the web January 9, 2007

Luanda

Traditional musical instruments used by various communities of the country are being exhibited since Monday at the National Anthropology Museum in Luanda.

The exhibition of instruments (mostly made out of wood, leather and sometimes with gourd) of aid to various arts, happens during this month and is part of the celebrations of January 08, National Culture Day.

The material is divided into three groups, being Pwita and Ngoma (drum), part of the membraphone group used during festivities between the Kimbundu, Ovimbundu, Côkwe, Khumbi and Kwanyama communities.

Marimba, kisanji, mondo and cingunvu (mostly used by the Kimbundu community) are part of the idiophonic instruments (2nd group), as for the third group, artistic materials that produce sound coming from the strings, with highlight to hungu, xihumba and xicomba (used by the Kimbundu, Ovambo and Nyaneka Humbi communities).

Aerophonic instruments will also be displayed at the exhibition, where there is highlight to flute or olombendo as called by the Ovimbundu or Mpungi, trumpet of the Kikongo royal family that served to announce funeral processions or swearing in of a king.

By inaugurating the exhibition, the Deputy Minister of Culture, Virgilho Coelho, visibly satisfied by the holding of the event during the National Culture Day, stated that artists should continue using and divulge these musical instruments, because they are part of the Angolan culture.

Apart from heads of the Culture Ministry, artists, MPs and lovers of art, the event was also attended by the Vice Governor of Luanda, Francisca do Espírito Santo, who cut the ribbon of the event's opening ceremony.