These handheld musical instruments, commonly known as Kalimbas or Thumb Pianos, are a westernized adaptation of a traditional folk instrument seen in parts of Africa for thousands of years. They are still used by the Shona people of Zimbabwe. The Shona refer to them as the Mbira Dzavadzimu which means “voice of the ancestors.”
The first incarnations used tines made from bamboo on the west coast of Africa about 3000 years ago. Metal-tined Mbiras appeared in the Zambezi River Valley around 400 CE.
They are categorized in the lamellaphone musical instrument family. Lamellaphones make sounds from a vibrating plate or tine called a lamella or tongue. These lamellae, when plucked vibrate through the instrument, usually made from wood or sometimes a gourd.
Bottle caps, buttons, shells and other objects are often fixed to the soundboard. In a traditional performance, the vibrating sound of these objects is very important and is believed to attract ancestral spirits.
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