Malika

Gourds or calabash are grown plentifully all over Africa and are used mainly as utensils for the kitchen: to carry water, sift rice, vessels to drink from, pots to store etc. They are also used in various forms of musical instruments such as rattles, and as resonance underneath xylophones, and they form the huge bowl for the kora, which is one of the oldest traditional instruments used by the Griots. who were the wandering minstrels of the Kings in ancient Mandinka society.