Colony and protectorate · 1896–1960
Drums, horns, harps and rattles, dancers and drummers, and the bands of the city.
Many were made by colonial officials, missionaries and foreign visitors. Titles and descriptions come from the collections that hold them and can carry the attitudes and language of their time. We show them as historical records, not as endorsements. Dates, eras and categories were assigned automatically from those records and some will be wrong. If you or your family appear in a picture, you hold rights to one, a detail is wrong, or you think a picture should not be here, press “Report this picture” under it: your note reaches our editors with the picture attached, and they can take it down straight away. You can also write to hello@dt-ets.com.
A drummer, Mende country, 1930–31 1930
Original title: Drum, man
Bolinder, Gustaf Wilhelm · Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Thatched round house with a painted band of triangles, Kissi country, 1930–31 1930
Original title: House
Bolinder, Gustaf Wilhelm · Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture
A group of dancers, Kissi country, 1930–31 1930
Original title: Dancers
Bolinder, Gustaf Wilhelm · Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Wilhelm Råberg playing a balangi (xylophone), 1956 1956
Original title: Marimba, xylofon
Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Lidded basket with an openwork band, Sierra Leone peninsula Collected 1930–31
Original title: Basket
Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Dance rattle of wooden discs on a bent cane Collected 1930–31
Original title: Rattle
Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Wall ornament of two cut boards with burnt-in pattern, Bullom, collected 1931 Collected 1930–31
Original title: Wall ornamentation
Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Wall ornament of two cut boards, collected 1931 Collected 1930–31
Original title: Wall ornamentation
Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture
A head of guinea corn (sorghum) on its stalk Collected 1930–31
Original title: Barley, food, proy on guinean.
Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture
A head of guinea corn (sorghum) Collected 1930–31
Original title: Korn, materialprov, corn
Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Ball of raw rubber, a toy Collected 1930–31
Original title: Toy, ball, toy [?]
Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Horn ring with a carved plate, Vai, collected 1931 Collected 1930–31
Original title: Ring, fingerring
Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Plain horn ring, collected 1931 Collected 1930–31
Original title: Ring
Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Snuff horn Collected 1930–31
Original title: Snushorn, snuff horn
Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Horn Collected 1930–31
Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Horn covered in red cloth, Vai Collected 1930–31
Original title: Horn
Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Trumpet Collected 1930–31
Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Drum Collected 1930–31
Original title: Drum, musikinstrument
Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Toy, ball Collected 1930–31
Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Lisk-Carew postcard Ofara dancer Sierra Leone c. 1905–1920
Alphonso Lisk-Carew · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture