Editing Banjo (section)

===Early origins===
[[File:SlaveDanceand Music.jpg|thumb|''[[The Old Plantation]]'', {{circa|1785–1795}}, the earliest known American painting to picture a banjo-like instrument, which shows a four-string instrument with its 4th (thumb) string shorter than the others; thought to depict a plantation in [[Beaufort County, South Carolina]]]]
[[File:Surinamese Creole, c 1770-1777.png|thumb|The oldest extant banjo, {{circa|1770–1777}}, from the [[Suriname]]se [[Creole peoples|Creole]] culture.]]

The modern banjo derives from instruments that have been recorded to be in use in [[North America]] and the Caribbean since the 17th&nbsp;century by enslaved people taken from West and Central Africa, such as the [[Kora (instrument)|kora]]. Their African-style instruments were crafted from split [[gourd]]s with animal skins stretched across them. Strings, from gut or vegetable fibers, were attached to a wooden neck.<ref name=banjojstor>{{cite journal |last=Epstein |first=Dena J. |title=The folk banjo: A documentary history |journal=Ethnomusicology |volume=19 |issue=3 |pages=347–371 |jstor=850790 | date = September 1975|doi=10.2307/850790 }}</ref> Written references to the banjo in North America and the [[Caribbean]] appear in the 17th and 18th&nbsp;centuries.<ref name=banjojstor/>

The earliest written indication of an instrument akin to the banjo is in the 17th&nbsp;century: Richard Jobson (1621) in describing [[The Gambia]], wrote about an instrument which some consider to be similar to the banjo.

<blockquote>They have little varietie of instruments, that which is most common in use, is made of a great gourd, and a necke thereunto fastned, resembling, in some sort, our Bandora; but they have no manner of fret, and the strings they are either such as the place yeeldes or their invention can attaine to make, being very unapt to yeeld a sweete and musicall sound, notwithstanding with pinnes they winde and bring to agree in tunable notes, having not above sixe strings upon their greatest instrument.<ref name=banjojstor/></blockquote>

The term ''banjo'' has several etymological origins. One theory links it to the [[Mandinka people|Mandinka]] language which gives the name of [[Banjul]], capital of The Gambia. Another claim is a connection to the West African ''[[akonting]]'': it is made with a long bamboo neck called a ''bangoe''. The material for the neck, called ''ban julo'' in the Mandinka language, again gives ''banjul''. In this interpretation, ''banjul'' became a sort of eponym for the akonting as it crossed the Atlantic. The instrument's name might also derive from the [[Kimbundu]] word ''mbanza'',<ref>{{cite web |title=How did banjos get their name? |website=The Banjo Guru |url=http://www.thebanjoguru.com/music/276-how-did-banjos-get-their-name/ |access-date=31 January 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101227071335/http://www.thebanjoguru.com/music/276-how-did-banjos-get-their-name/ |archive-date=27 December 2010}}</ref> which is a loan word to the Portuguese language resulting in the term ''banza'',<ref name=banjojstor/> which was used by early French travelers in the Americas.<ref>{{cite book |chapter=Confidence and Admiration: The Enduring Ringing of the Banjo |first=Robert Lloyd |last=Webb |url=https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/pdfs/Banjo_on_Record.pdf|title=Banjo on Record: A Bio-Discography|editor=Heier, Uli |editor2=Lotz, Rainer E.|page=8|year=1993|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=9780313284922|series=UCSB Historical Discography Series|accessdate=13 February 2024}}</ref> Its earliest recorded use was in 1678<ref name=banjojstor/> by the Sovereign Council of Martinique which reinstated a 1654 decree that placed prohibitions and restrictions on "dances and assemblies of negroes" deemed to be ''[[calinda|kalenda]]'', which was defined as the gathering of enslaved Africans who danced to the sound of a drum and an instrument called the banza.<ref name=banjojstor/><ref name=Dessalles_Vonglis>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OhczAQAAMAAJ |title=Les annales du conseil souverain de la Martinique |volume=2. Introduction, sources, bibliographies et notes |author=Dessalles, Pierre-François-Régis |editor=Vonglis, Bernard |page=260 |year=1786 |publisher=L'Harmattan |isbn=978-2-7384-2366-5 |accessdate=13 February 2024}}</ref>

The [[Oxford English Dictionary|OED]] claims that the term ''banjo'' comes from a [[dialect]]al pronunciation of Portuguese ''bandore'' or from an early anglicisation of Spanish ''[[bandurria]]''.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Banjo |dictionary=Oxford English Dictionary |url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/15231?redirectedFrom=banjo& |access-date=12 October 2017}}</ref> Contrary evidence shows that the terms ''bandore'' and ''bandurria'' were used when Europeans encountered the instrument or its kin varieties in use by people of African descent, who used  names for the instrument such as ''banza'',<ref name=banjojstor/> as it was called in places such as [[Haiti]], varieties that were built around a [[gourd]] body with a wooden plank for the neck. [[François Richard de Tussac]], a former planter from [[Saint-Domingue]], details its construction in the book ''Le Cri des Colons'', published in 1810, stating:<ref name="RichardTussac">{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AgoUAAAAIAAJ|title=Le Cri des Colons|author=Richard Tussac, François|page=292|year=1810|publisher=Delaunay, libraire|accessdate=13 February 2024}}</ref><ref name="HaitianBanza">{{cite web |url=https://sites.duke.edu/banjology/the-banjo-in-haiti/the-haitian-banza/ |title=The Haitian Banza |date=13 February 2013 |editor=Press |publisher=Duke University |access-date=13 February 2024}}</ref>

<blockquote>As for the guitars, which the negroes call ''banzas'', this is what they consist of: they cut lengthwise, through the middle, a fresh [[calabash]] [the fruit of a tree called the [[Crescentia cujete|callebassier]]]. This fruit is sometimes eight inches or more in diameter. The stretch across it the skin of a goat, which they attach on the edges with little nails; they put two or three little holes on this surface, and then a kind of plank or piece of wood that is rudely flattened makes the neck of the instrument; they stretch three strings made of pitre [a kind of string taken from the [[agave]] plant, commonly known as pitre] across it; and so the instrument is built. On this instrument they play [[Air (music)|air]]s composed of three or four notes, which they repeat constantly.<ref name="RichardTussac"/><ref name="HaitianBanza"/></blockquote>

[[Michel Étienne Descourtilz]], a naturalist who visited Haiti in the early 1800s, described it as ''banzas'', a Negro instrument, that the natives prepare by sawing one of the calabashes or a large gourd lengthwise, to which they attach a neck and sonorous strings made from the filament" of aloe plants.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Haitian Banza |url=https://sites.duke.edu/banjology/the-banjo-in-haiti/the-haitian-banza/ |website=Banjology |access-date=14 February 2024 |date=13 February 2013}}</ref> It was played during any occasion, from boredom to joyous parties and [[Calinda|calendas]] to funeral ceremonies. It was the custom to also combine this sound with the more noisy ''[[bamboula]]'', a type of drum made from a stick of bamboo covered on both sides with a skin that was played with fingers and knuckles while sitting astride.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/florepittoresque05desc/page/n7/mode/2up|title=Flore Pittoresque Et Médicale Des Antilles|author=Descourtilz, Michel-Etienne|page=85-86|year=1821–1829|volume=5|publisher=Paris Pichard|access-date=13 February 2024}}</ref><ref name="HaitianBanza"/>

Various instruments in Africa, chief among them the [[Kora (instrument)|''kora'']], feature a skin [[drumhead]] and [[gourd]] (or similar shell) body.<ref name=Pestcoe-Adams-2010>{{cite web |author1=Pestcoe, Shlomoe |author2=Adams, Greg C. |year=2010 |title=Banjo roots research: Exploring the banjo's African American origins & west African heritage |type=blog |website=Myspace.com |url=http://www.myspace.com/banjoroots/blog |url-status=dead |access-date=19 April 2021 |archiveurl=https://archive.today/20121229072104/http://www.myspace.com/banjoroots/blog |archive-date=29 December 2012}}</ref> These instruments differ from early African-American banjos in that the necks do not possess a Western-style fingerboard and tuning pegs; instead they have stick necks, with strings attached to the neck with loops for tuning.<ref name=Pestcoe-Adams-2010/>

Another likely relative of the banjo is the aforementioned ''akonting'', a spike folk lute which is constructed using a gourd body, a long wooden neck, and three strings<ref>{{cite web |url=https://baileyandbanjo.com/what-is-an-akonting/ |title=What is an Akonting? |date=16 May 2023 }}</ref> played by the [[Jola people|Jola tribe]] of [[Senegambia]], and the ''ubaw-akwala'' of the [[Ibo people|Igbo]].<ref name=Chambers-2009>{{cite book |first=Douglas B. |last=Chambers |year=2009 |title=Murder at Montpelier: Ibo Africans in Virginia |publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi |page=180 |isbn=978-1-60473-246-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vqpoxEl_0_4C&pg=PA180}}</ref> Similar instruments include the ''[[xalam]]'' of [[Senegal]]<ref name=FischerKelly2000>{{cite book |author1=Fischer, David Hackett |author2=Kelly, James C. |collaboration=Virginia Historical Society |year=2000 |title=Bound Away: Virginia and the Westward Movement |publisher=University of Virginia Press |isbn=978-0-8139-1774-0 |pages=66ff  |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GFa7KVPWmKwC&pg=PA66}}</ref> and the ''[[Ngoni (instrument)|ngoni]]'' of the [[Wassoulou]] region that includes parts of [[Mali]], [[Guinea]], and [[Ivory Coast]], as well as a larger variation of the ''ngoni'',  known as the ''gimbri'', developed in [[Morocco]] by sub-Saharan Africans ([[Gnawa]] or [[Haratin#Morocco|Haratin]]).

Banjo-like instruments seem to have been independently invented in several different places, in addition to the many African instruments mentioned above, since instruments similar to the banjo are known from a diverse array of distant countries. For example, the Chinese ''[[sanxian]]'', the Japanese ''[[shamisen]]'', the Persian ''[[Tar (lute)|tar]]'', and the Moroccan ''[[sintir]]''.<ref name=Chambers-2009/>

Banjos with fingerboards and tuning pegs are known from the Caribbean as early as the 17th&nbsp;century.<ref name=Pestcoe-Adams-2010/> Some 18th- and early 19th-century writers transcribed the name of these instruments variously as ''bangie'', ''banza'', ''bonjaw'',<ref>{{cite book |last1=Williams |first1=Cynric R. |year=1827 |title=Hamel, the Obeah Man |edition=1st |publisher=Hunt and Clarke |place=London, UK |page=17 |url=https://archive.org/stream/hamelobeahman00hamegoog#page/n26/mode/2up |access-date=7 February 2016}}</ref> ''banjer''<ref>{{cite news |title=Entertainment at the [[Lyceum Theatre, London|Lyceum]] featuring stage character, 'The Negro and his Banjer' |newspaper=[[The Times]] |place=London, UK |date=5 October 1790 |page=1}}</ref> and ''banjar''.

The instrument became increasingly available commercially from around the second quarter of the 19th century due to [[minstrel show]] performances.<ref name=grove/>