The “Great Game” was a series of Anglo-Russian conflicts culminating in three wars in South-Central Asia beginning in 1830 and lasting until 1919. British forces occupied Afghanistan in 1838 to retaliate against Persian and Russian influence, beginning the first Anglo-Afghan war that would last until 1842. The second war spanned from 1878 to 1880, and the final war lasted only a couple of months in 1919, ending with an armistice signed by Britain that sent the English out of Afghanistan.

Sissons Paints, founded in 1803, grew throughout those wars, being incorporated as The Sissons Brothers and Co. Ltd. in 1887, and beginning to industrially manufacture paints and varnishes in 1914. Cans of paint and varnish could be found throughout British networks, including in occupied Afghanistan, where the can used in this instrument ended up. It may have had something to do with World War I resulting in increased manufacturing production for many British companies.

The Kuchi people are Pashtun, the dominant tribe in Afghanistan, now mostly settled but historically nomadic. The word for nomad in Dari is “kuchi.” When this instrument was created, there were far more nomadic Kuchi, and they would have passed through various parts of Afghanistan during Britain’s occupation. Around the time the British tin can would have entered the country, Afghanistan was divided due to the 1907 Anglo-Russian Convention in St. Petersburg, and Britain still had a foothold in southeastern Afghanistan, so that is likely where the Kuchi found this can, possibly many years later, and combined it with native materials into a fiddle.