Balafon
In short: A West African percussion instrument with wooden keys and gourd resonators.
Object
How does it work in the tale?
The Sosso-Bala kept in Nyagassola, Guinea, is a balafon associated with the Epic of Sunjata. Its sound accompanies the passing on of the epic.
What do the gourds beneath the keys do?
The Sosso-Bala has gourds beneath wooden keys of different lengths. When a key is struck, the gourds help the sound resonate. In the Atlas you can open the record of the instrument in Nyagassola alongside the written Sunjata record in Bamako. One foregrounds an object that accompanies the telling, the other the words preserved in writing.