Molo (lute)

[2] Molo is the name used for a specific type of African lute, one that has a boat-shaped body or soundbox, carved from wood and a round dowel for a neck.

[1] The soundbox has an open top, covered by duiker hide or goatskin.

[1] Molo has also has become a generalized term for "any plucked string instrument" among the Hauser people in Nigeria.

[4] Victor Grauer, another who credited the instrument as a possible ancestor to the banjo, based his idea on the molo's short string, designed to play only one note being similar to the banjo's 5th string, which plays only one note).

[3] Both the garaya and the molo have been used for religious ceremony, the "Bori spirit possession cult.

A molo collected by Dr. Lorenzo Dow Turner, from the Hausa people of Nigeria in 1951.
Backside of the molo collected by Dr. Lorenzo Dow Turner, from the Hausa people of Nigeria in 1951. The soundboard is held on and properly tensioned by the rawhide stings on the back of the instrument.