Originating in Gabon, the ngombi is an eight-stringed harp-zither associated with the Fang people, whose creation is as much an art form as a symbol.
Its shape represents a vibrating body, invested with a mediating function between the visible and the invisible.
At the heart of the syncretic male initiation rites of Bwiti or Sô, it structures the ritual, supports the spoken word, and orders sacred time.
The music produced by the strings was conceived as a "voice," a means of communication with the world of spirits and the deceased. Its sound is inscribed within a cosmology where music and transmission are one, reminding us that certain musical traditions constitute veritable systems of thought.
Fang harps rank among the rarest of objects; only a small number of comparable examples are currently recorded, notably one from the former collection of Mauricio and Emilia Lasansky, as well as those held at the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Madrid and the musée du quai Branly. This rarity likely stems from the ritual value of these objects, long kept from a profane view and carefully preserved.
Through its elegance and the remarkable quality of its carving, this harp stands as a masterpiece. Faithful to Fang aesthetic canons, at the intersection of sculpture and instrument, it powerfully expresses the excellence and depth of this artistic tradition.
Between form and resonance, between material and the invisible, it embodies a mode of thought in which the object is never reduced to itself, but becomes passage, voice, and memory.
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