Shekeres

We work with a group of 30 men and women in Nigeria who build these shekeres to our exact specifications, starting from the gourds on up, so each one is a fine musical instrument.

Here's what goes into making our custom shekeres:

One man travels to the far North of Nigeria where the best gourds are grown and he spends several weeks going to the gourd markets and meeting with the farmers until he has collected thousands of our exact size and shape gourds. When he returns to the South with a huge truck full of the raw gourds, a group of 8 people spend many weeks cleaning, smoothing, and sizing each gourd. They totally clean the inside of every gourd and they smooth all the openings with sandpaper before applying a coat of natural shea butter to give a rich luster.

While this is going on, a group of 18 women are busy weaving all the nets to our exact standards, using the best nylon cord and beads available.

When both parts of the production are complete, a third group of people match the beaded nets to gourds of the right size and shape to create these very musical shekeres.

While other importers merely buy ready-made shekeres in the markets of Africa, we custom design and build ours from scratch to offer the best possible quality and price.