page_title: Harp
section_title: Africa
hierarchical_section_title: Harp / Development and history / Africa
caption_attribution_description: English: A Mangbetu boy playing an instrument.Dansk: En Mangbetu dreng spiller på en hape.
context_page_description: The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers.
context_section_description: A number of types of harps are found in Africa, predominantly not of the three-sided frame-harp type found in Europe. A number of these, referred to generically as African harps, are bow or angle harps, which lack forepillars joining the neck to the body.
  A number of harp-like instruments in Africa are not easily classified with European categories. Instruments like the West African kora and Mauritanian ardin are sometimes labeled as "spike harp", "bridge harp", or harp lute since their construction includes a bridge which holds the strings laterally, vice vertically entering the soundboard.
caption: A Mangbetu man playing a bow harp.
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