Gurmi (lute)

The gurmi is a two or three-stringed lute of the Hausa people of northern Nigeria.^[1][2] May also be called gurumi or kumbo.^[1][2] In looking at the two-finger playing style used by musicians who play the gumbri, researchers have listed it as a possible relative to the banjo.^[3][4] Researchers have talked about the gurmi and gurumi as if these are two different but similar instruments.^[2][5]

Hausa musician playing a gurmi

The instrument is also played by Toubou people and "other peoples of Niger and northern Nigeria."^[5]

Details

A gurmi as illustrated by P. G. Harris in his 1932 article Notes on Drums and Musical Instruments Seen in Sokoto Province, Nigeria.

It has a soundbox made from a half calabash or gourd, the opening covered with hide for a soundboard.^[1][2] The neck pierces the calabash, its end poking out the bottom of the instrument. Strings are secured to the stump of stick at the bottom and run across a bridge on the hide soundboard to the neck. The strings are secured to the neck by tying them to tuning rings, separate strings or bands tied around the neck.

While a member of the xalam family of instruments, the gurmi is specific to the Hausa people.^[1] Unlike the xalam, with its oval shaped soundbox, the gurmi's soundbox is round (the shape of the gourd which is its body).^[4] They have a rounded dowel neck.^[4]

The instrument has been traditionally played by Hausa men to make songs that praise wrestlers.^[1] It may be played as a solo instrument or accompany singing.^[1]

Variations and relatives

Researchers have paired the gurmi with a number of African lutes, many with names that may be related to the name gurmi.^[2] The instruments are "full-spike lutes" meaning that the neck goes all the way through the instrument, poking through both sides of the gourd or calabash resonator.^[2] Another alternative, separating these from other African lutes is the "semi-spike lutes" such as the xalam, in which the end of the neck pokes out through the soundboard (instead of out through the side of the gourd) and acts as a bridge.^[2]

These full-spike lutes include:

• Gambare. Soninke people of Mali.^[1]
• Gullum. Kilba people, Nigeria. 3 strings, round calabash soundbox, soundhole in side, a bridge that is hollow and "contains seeds".^[1][2] Used at death ceremonies.^[1]
• Gulum, gulom. Kotoko people, Chad, Cameroon. 3 strings, "hemispherical" calabash soundbox, covered with cowhide, laced to instrument with strips on instrument's back. Horsehair/nylon strings.^[2][6]
• Gumbri, Guinbri.^[1][7] Lute played by Gnawa people (descendants of West Africans brought north to Morocco as slaves).
• Gurumi. Dosso people of Niger.^[1] Mauri people, southern Chad.^[1]
• Gurumi. Hausa people. Niger. 2 strings, calabash soundbox.^[2]
• Gurumi. Toubou people. Nigeria. 2 strings, calabash soundbox.^[2]
• Kambre. Sierra Leone.^[1]
• Kubru. Timbuktu, Mali.^[1] 3 strings, plucked. Boat shaped soundbox, "metal-ringed jingle". Paired with diarka one-stringed fiddle.^[8]
• Ngùlǎn. Bana people. Cameroon. 3 strings, calabash or gourd soundbox in bowl shape.^[2][9]

• 
  Malam Maman Barka of the Toubou people, playing an Ngurumi.
• 
  Econtine, Diola people, in Casamance, Senegal