The nyele is a small horn made from hollowed out animal horn or

matete Matete is one of the 24 communes that are the administrative divisions of Kinshasa, the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Location Matete is located south of Boulevard Lumumba () from the Matete River, just east of the Lime ...

reed. The nyele is played in groups; one man plays one

note Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to: Music and entertainment * Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music * ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian * ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) shortened version ...

and others play different pitches, which combine to form a certain combination of sounds. Traditionally, the nyele were played along with the budima drums at funerals of the so-called Valley Tonga in

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most cent ...

. The nyele is sometimes decorated with

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an paints, a sleeve of snakeskin or seed beads pressed into bees wax. They are used by men and youth at both formal and informal dances. They are commonly played with drums and not by themselves alone, and are employed for funerals, large gatherings, and other ceremonial occasions. They vary in size from about 5 inches to 18 inches (13 cm to 46 cm) long.

External links

Group of seventeen Tonga men playing nyele
at Smithsonian Global Sound Natural horns and trumpets Zambian musical instruments {{Aerophone-instrument-stub