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The Collector(s) / Donor(s) Virginia Artis and her late husband, Jay, lived in Uganda for two years in the early 1970s. Jay, a member of the the Michigan State University Sociology Faculty, was teaching sociology and statistics at Makerere University in the country's capital, Kampala, under the auspices of the Rockefeller Foundation. Virginia taught pre-school at a self-help center in Kampala.She had some previous knowledge of the visual arts and music and became interested in the arts and craft traditions of Uganda. Jay and Virginia were given gifts, and they also purchased a variety of artifacts--musical instruments, baskets, furniture, figurative sculpture, clothing and jewelry. Many of these acquisitions were donated to the Museum in 1995. Collector(s) / Donor(s) Statement The Object(s) The sansa is a plucked ideophone or "thumb piano." According to Margaret Trowell (1953: 327) the instrument is a fairly recent introduction to Uganda having been brought to the area by migrant workers coming from what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire and the Belgian Congo). In Uganda, the sansa is often accompanied by a drum and various stringed instruments. The body, is a hollowed-out block of wood, the keys are made from flattened bicycle spokes. This particular piece was a "used" object when the Artis's collected it. Further Information Books and Articles Paul Berliner. "John Kunaka, Mbira Maker." African Arts 14 (1) 1980: 61-67, 88. Marie-Therese Brincard, ed. Sounding Forms: African Musical Instruments. New York: American Federation of Arts, 1989. Kathleen Margaret Trowell. Tribal Crafts of Uganda. London: Oxford University Press, 1953. Internet Resourcesnone
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