he gankogui, also known as a gakpevi, is a bell, or gong instrument played with a wooden stick.

It
is made out of forged iron and consists of a low-pitched bell (often referred as the parent bell) and
a high-pitched bell (or the child bell, which is said to rest on the bosom of the protective parent),
which are permanently bound together. The gankogui is the skeleton, backbone, and foundation
of all traditional Ewe music. The gankogui player must play steadily and without error throughout
the piece. The gankogui player must be a trustworthy person, and is considered blind if they do
not have a concrete understanding of the instrument and its role in the drumming ensemble. In a
drumming ensemble, a gankogui player uses no variation.
The time span of one bell cycle establishes the temporal period of the music, although some
phrases cover several bell cycles. The regulative time point—“the one”—is the instant of
maximum, although quite temporary, stasis. In each bell cycle, it is the moment towards which
the ensemble thematic cycle moves. The bell phrase guides the tempo, aligns the instruments,
and marks elapsing musical time into bell cycle units.

— David Locke, (2010: web)[1]

Atoke[edit]
The atoke is a forged-iron bell instrument and is shaped somewhat like a boat or a banana. It is
held in the palm of the player's weak hand and is played with a small forged-iron rod, held in the
player's strong hand. You strike the rod against the outside of the bell to create a pitch. The atoke
serves the same purpose as the gankogui and is sometimes used instead of or a substitute for
the gankogui. The gankogui and atoke come in all various sizes.