The Banjo Came to America From West Africa
A banjo is a stringed instrument with a drum-like body. Its ancestors were built by enslaved West Africans, and its name probably comes from an African word.
A banjo is a stringed instrument with a circular body and a skin head. Its history is African American: enslaved people in the Caribbean and North America built gourd instruments modelled on West African lutes such as the akonting, and the banjo grew directly from them. The name is recorded from the 1740s in various spellings, and is generally traced to an African source.
- The instrument. *A five-string banjo.*
- Banjoist — a player. *A skilled banjoist.*
- Clawhammer — an old playing style. *Clawhammer banjo.*
- Bluegrass — a genre built around it. *Bluegrass banjo.*
- Akonting — a West African ancestor. *The Jola akonting.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | banjo | An old banjo. |
| Plural | banjos | Two banjos. |
| Agent | banjoist | A fine banjoist. |
| Early spelling | banjar | An 18th-century form. |
| Related | akonting | A gourd lute. |
- The banjo has a skin head like a drum.Construction.
- Clawhammer is an older style than bluegrass picking.Technique.
- Thomas Jefferson described the banjar in 1781.An early written record.
How the banjo travelled
- West African lutes with gourd bodies and skin heads
- Built by enslaved people in the Caribbean and North America
- Adopted by minstrel shows in the nineteenth century, in a racist performance tradition
- Absorbed into Appalachian music, then bluegrass
- Its African origins were widely forgotten and have been actively recovered by musicians and historians
Recorded in English from the 1740s in forms including *banjar* and *banjer*, generally traced to a West African source, possibly through a Portuguese-influenced form of a word for a stringed instrument.
Where did the banjo come from?
From West African gourd lutes, rebuilt by enslaved Africans in the Americas. It is an African American instrument in origin.
What is clawhammer style?
An older down-picking technique in which the hand strikes downward, distinct from the three-finger roll used in bluegrass.