The akonting ([ə'kɔntiŋ],[1] or ekonting in French transliteration) is the folk lute of the Jola people, found in Senegal, Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau in West Africa.

In Gambia, for another variant the 1st long melody is raised a semitone (half-step) higher to make a natural 7th note, as in cFE.

The earliest forms of the banjo were, in fact, very similar gourd-bodied lutes, which enslaved West Africans in the Caribbean began making and playing sometime in the early 17th century.

Of all the myriad variety of West African plucked lutes, the Jola akonting stands out as the one instrument today that bears the strongest resemblance to early North American gourd banjos.

The stroke style of down-picking has survived to this very day in the folk traditions of both the black and white communities of the rural South, where it is commonly referred to as frailing, clawhammer, thumping, among other terms.

Even more pertinent to the ongoing search for the banjo's ancestors, it is the only West African lute with a banjo-like short "thumb string" which is played in this manner.

In addition to the Jola akonting, the Manjago buchundu, the Papel busunde, the Balanta kisinta, and all the various kinds of wooden-bodied lutes that are exclusive to the griots (for example, the Mande ngoni, the Wolof xalam, the Fula hoddu, and the Soninke gambare) have a short "thumb string" drone.

Young akonting players like Bouba Diedhiou, a teenage radio performer from a rural Casamance village is carrying on the traditional style; also, Sana Ndiaye, best known for his work with the Dakar-based hip hop group Gokh-Bi System, is introducing the instrument to broader audiences.

Thanks to the work of Daniel Jatta, as well as the vital efforts of Swedish banjoist/researcher Ulf Jägfors Archived 2018-07-02 at the Wayback Machine, British banjo historian Nick Bamber, American old-time country musician/scholar Ben Nelson, banjoist/ gourd musical instrument expert/builder Paul Sedgwick, and others, there is growing global awareness of the akonting and its siblings in the large diverse family of West African folk/artisan lutes, which have been hitherto overlooked.