The Aquarium will be closed all day on Wednesday 27 April, and reopen from Thursday 28 April.
Shaker made from nut halves strung together with red and yellow twine.
Played by holding the loop of twine and shaking in the air so the nutshells hit each other. It can also be held in one hand and beaten with the palm of the other. Nut rattles like this are widespread in West Africa and are played by musicians as the percussion part of a small orchestra. They would often be played alongside balafons, talking drums, ngonis, and koras. It gives a lower pitched sound than a gourd seed rattle.
These objects are only a part of our collections, of which there are more than 350,000 objects. This information comes from our collections database. Some of this is incomplete and there may be errors. This part of the website is also still under construction, so there may be some fields repeated or incorrectly formatted information.
The database sometimes uses language taken from historical documents to help research, which may now appear outdated and even offensive. The database also includes information on objects that are considered secret or sacred by some communities.
If you have any further information about objects in our collections or can suggest corrections to our information, please contact us: enquiry@horniman.ac.uk
