Begena

My Favorite Instrument

Begena
Begena Begena Begena Begena

The begena, (Amharic: በገና) is a ten-stringed box-lyre instrument from Ethiopia, and is the sole melodic instrument devoted only to the zema, the spiritual part of Ethiopian music. Oral tradition identifies the instrument with the kinnor of the Israelites played by David to soothe King Saul's nerves and heal him of insomnia, and later brought to Africa by Menelik I. Its actual origin remains in doubt, though local manuscripts depict the instrument at the beginning of the 15th century AD.