The six-string harp (tom)

The tom was the Lango harp, and it had once been the instrument everyone played. Every man made his own, as men also made their own flutes.

• The body was hollowed from wood, boat-shaped, and covered with elephant hide with a small round hole in it.
• A curved arm with pegs rose from one end, and the six strings ran from it to the other end. The strings were made from the leg tendons of animals.
• No bow and no plectrum were used.

By 1923 only a few old men still played it, although, Driberg wrote, it had “a most attractive tone” and always drew a crowd of young men who stopped to listen, even on their way to a hunt.

Source: J. H. Driberg, The Lango: A Nilotic Tribe of Uganda (London, 1923), pp. 88 and 123; public domain. It describes life about a hundred years ago as a colonial administrator saw it, so customs have changed and some may be told differently today. Elders and families are invited to correct it and add what they know.