Thank you for your private message wanting me to respond to your post. You have done a great job with posting the images! I applaud you for that! I do apologize for taking so long in getting back to you.
I think that what your instrument is actually called greatly depends on what section of Africa might be putting a name to it. There are hundreds if not thousands of various stringed instruments from around the world that might belong to the guitar/lute family of instruments. Concerning names for instruments, a case in point might be the thumb piano. There are over 30 different names for it depending on where you might find it referenced in a particular location in Africa. All of the names point to that which is concerning the same kind of instrument.
So, what I am saying is that your instrument could be both a Xalam or Ngoni. It just might depend on where it is from in Africa. And, that is something that we might not ever be able to ascertain.
I do note that on the following site, it is called both names as well as Konting.
http://www.kora-music.com/d/familie.htm
Linear Mode
