Bowl lyre with five (occasionally six) strings, used in Eritrea (Ethiopia) and the Sudan, where the term is a generic one for the lyre. The instrument is also known in Zaïre and Uganda as rababah or rapapa, mostly with five strings, with or without bridge and with very small soundholes recalling those of the Ethiopian krar; some instruments have eight strings, no bridge and a single soundhole. The rababa is played by the Bari people of Zaïre and the same instrument is called tum by the Bari of the Sudan. At Omdurman (Sudan), the six-string rabāba lyre is central to what is called tambūra worship.
The rabāba has a hemispherical soundbox covered with cow-, antelope-, lamb- or (in Zaïre) lizard-hide; two arms extend from this and fit exactly on a cross-bar on to which the strings are wound, with or without strips of material. In the Zaïre models the soundbox may be oval or even rectangular. The tuning is anhemipentatonic.
The rabāba is used in songs in praise of the cattle among pastoral people such as the Beni Amer of Sudan or Eritrea; in this it is linked with the five-string goala lyre of the Hamar in south Ethiopia. It is also used in the secular repertory, for entertainment, serenades or in mockery, for example in war songs where its tuning is followed by collective shouts of combat.
In Sudan the instrument was identified at the beginning of the century among the Bija under the name masonqo or basamkob; it is now called rabāba, which is the Arabic term. The five ways of tuning the Bija rabāba reflect the ethnic division of this society whose castes are recognized by the instrument. The six-string rabāba is used with percussion in zār spirit ceremonies; principally at Omdurman, an elaborate symbolic ritual is enacted which is known as tambūra worship. There are also anthropomorphic considerations: the instrument is given a name, and its soundholes represent the eyes of a person which express themselves by means of strings. Although this is basically a feminine ritual, the rabāba is played by a male musician.
See also Sudan, §1.
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CHRISTIAN POCHÉ