An idiochord stick zither with a notched bridge. It is unique to an area of western central Africa which includes southern Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, northern areas of the Republic of the Congo and the south-west of the Central African Republic. Its invention is attributed to the people of the Pahouin group (known variously as the Fang’, Fan, Fanwe, Mfang’, Mpangwe, Pangwe) and, according to tradition, its first player was Efandene Mvie. First described by Hornbostel as a ‘Pangwe’ instrument, it is thought to be a development of the monochord stick zither of the Fang’ and other peoples.
The Pahouin mvet (see illustration) is made from a raffia branch about 1·5 metres long. Five idiochord strings are raised from the hard surface of the branch and are supported at their centre by a notched bridge. Small rings of fibre are wound round the ends of the strings and the branch; the mvet is tuned by adjusting these rings to shorten or lengthen the strings. One to six gourd resonators are attached to the back of the string-bearer. (See also Cameroon; Central African Republic; Gabon.)
E.M. von Hornbostel: ‘Die Musik der Pangwe’, in G. Tessman: Die Pangwe, ii (Berlin, 1913/R), 320–57
S.-M. Eno Belinga: Littérature et musique populaire en Afrique noire (Paris, 1965)
S. Awona: ‘Bikud-Si et mvet’, Les danses du Cameroun/Cameroonian Dances (Yaoundé, 2/1971), 87
S.-M. Eno Belinga: ‘Musique traditionelle et musique moderne au Cameroun’, Bulletin of the International Committee on Urgent Anthropological and Ethnological Research, xi (1969), 83–90
S.-M. Eno Belinga: Découverte des chantefables beti, bulu, fang du Cameroun (Paris, 1970)
P. Alexandre: ‘Introduction to a Fang Oral Art Genre: Gabon and Cameroon Mvet’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, xxxvii (1974), 17
GERHARD KUBIK