Ulf Jagfors, an academic from Stockholm, Sweden, has also contributed much to the research after meeting Daniel Jatta in Stockholm. Ulf gave a wonderful talk and film show a few years ago at the Gainsborough Old Time Festival here in the UK. He told us that the neck of the Akonting is made from bamboo, for which the local West African word is banjul.
The Akonting is much more banjo-like than the ngoni and xalam, and the playing style has an almost Old Time banjo feel about it.

Ray