Snakeskin or lizard skin covers a gourd bowl, and a horsehair string is suspended on bridge.

The goje is commonly used to accompany song, and is usually played as a solo instrument, although it also features prominent in ensembles with other West African string, wind or percussion instruments, including the Shekere, calabash drum, talking drum, or Ney.

The instrument is tied to various pre-Islamic Sahelian rituals around jinn possession, such as the Bori and Hauka traditions of the Maguzawa Hausa, Zarma, Borori, and Songhay.

The various names by which the goje is known by include goge or goje (Hausa, Zarma), gonjey (Dagomba, Gurunsi), gonje, (Mamprusi, Dagomba), njarka (Songhay), n'ko (Bambara, Mandinka and other Mande languages), riti (Fula, Serer), and nyanyeru or nyanyero.

Among the Hausa, another smaller fiddle called the kukkuma exists, whose use is associated with more secular acts, but it played in a similar way to that of the slightly larger and esteemed goje.