The ownership of this object was transferred to Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) in November 2022.
A bow lute or pluriarc known in Benin as an akpata. Benin City. It has circular patterns burnt into the wood and has seed shells hanging from the end. Akpata are harp-like instruments made of wood and strings which make a sound like a guitar. They continue to be used for entertainment during special festivals and ceremonies.
These objects are only a part of our collections, of which there are more than 350,000 objects. This information comes from our collections database. Some of this is incomplete and there may be errors. This part of the website is also still under construction, so there may be some fields repeated or incorrectly formatted information.
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