The banjo is a stringed instrument developed by enslaved Africans in the United States, adapted from several African instruments. The name banjo is commonly thought to be derived from the Kimbundu term mbanza. Some etymologists derive it from a dialectal pronunciation of "bandore", though recent research suggests that it may come from a Senegambian term for a bamboo stick formerly used for the instrument's neck.
Enslaved Africans, in the American...
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The banjo is a stringed instrument developed by enslaved Africans in the United States, adapted from several African instruments. The name banjo is commonly thought to be derived from the Kimbundu term mbanza. Some etymologists derive it from a dialectal pronunciation of "bandore", though recent research suggests that it may come from a Senegambian term for a bamboo stick formerly used for the instrument's neck.
Enslaved Africans, in the American South and Appalachia, fashioned gourd-bodied instruments like those with which they had been familiar in Africa. 18th and early 19th century writers transcribed the name of these instruments variously as bangie, banza, banjer and banjar. Instruments similar to the banjo (e.g., the Japanese shamisen and Persian tar have been played in many countries, but a likely ancestor of the banjo is the akonting, a spike folk lute played by the Jola tribe of Senegambia. Other similar instruments include the xalam of Senegal and the ngoni of the Wassoulou...
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