Ramkie

Ramkie is a historic guitar with three to six strings were stretched over a thin fingerboard on a calabash. They originated in South Africa, where they are known at least since the 18th century. 1934 described the ethnomusicologist Percival Kirby a ramkie as a rude sort of guitar ( " a rough shape of the guitar "). The name derives from the Portuguese Kirby rabeguinha, according rabeca pequena, a small Portuguese Violin (cf. braguinha, a small guitar ).

The historic instrument of Khoikhoi is a precursor of today's Afri -can guitar, which has a body made of an oil canister and is sometimes called in accordance with the tradition ramkie. Their strings are mostly made of fishing line or the individual wires of a Bowden cable.

Other string instruments in Southern Africa with metal canister resonators are the one-stringed zither segankuru trough with a tuning peg and the simpler isankuni whose string is clamped directly between the end of the support bar and an edge of the canister.