instrument listed as African mandolin on fb marketplace

[jim simpson]

Evidently the mandolin had it's origins in Africa along with the banjo! Who knew? lol!

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace...2-77f2f6af0d86

[rickbella]

Um, maybe the other kind of mandolin -- for slicing vegetables.

[mrmando]

It's a kora or something related to a kora. "Mandolin" is a common word choice for "stringed instrument I know nothing about."

The earliest chordophones probably did come from Africa, as Graham McDonald points out in his mandolin book. So there is a relationship here but it's a distant one.

[Paul Kotapish]

It's not a kora, but it is a harp.

Four- or five-string (or more) bow harps are common in numerous central African cultures. This could be a adungu, domu, kundi, or something similar. My go-to guy for identifying African stringed instruments was the late, great Paul Hostetter, but perhaps another member of our community has similar expertise.

[journeybear]

It's some sort of harp. Those strings are meant to play with full length - no means of fretting provided. Don't fret over it - or with it.

[Ray(T)]

Such “relief”.