The ngoni or African guitar is the instrument very similar to Cora, but with a lesser number of strings. While the cora has 21 strings, the ngoni has between 8 strings at the least and 16 at the most. The body of the ngoni is made from the calabash, wood, goat skin and nylon strings. It is mostly tuned to a pentatonic scale.
In the past, it was the instrument of African hunters. Nowadays it is a very popular West African instrument, played by the griots who have the role of narrators and repositories of oral tradition in the West African culture.
