Object Name: Trumpet

Place of Origin: Tanzania, Kilimanjaro region

Medium/Materials: Kudu horn

Dimensions: L: 88.9 cm (35 in)

Credit Line: Fowler Museum at UCLA. Gift of the Wellcome Trust.

Accession Number:X65.2407

Side-blown trumpets fashioned from antelope horn are found in many parts of Africa and have been played in a rich variety of political, religious, and social contexts. More common than trumpets carved from elephant ivory, these made from antelope horn are typically not subject to many of the indigenous strictures that reserve ivory for the ruling elite. The spiral of this Kudu horn is a particularly dramatic from that may lend to symbolic connotations to its music.

Source: DjeDje, J. C. (1999). “Turn Up the Volume! A Celebration of African Music”, Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History. page 310