Kologo

‘Kologo here before the banjo, kologo here before the lute… kologo music be the root.’ So goes the refrain to the opening song to the Alostmen’s homage is a two-stringed lute, a precursor of the banjo, and an instrument known throughout West Africa. It’s also an instrument that is easily at hand, with a resonating chamber which might be carefully made from a gourd, or, in a more ready way, with an oil can. Either way, the diversity of the ways to construct the kologo speaks to its essential popularity.