The kalimba is a modern-day example of an ancient family of African musical instruments. Hugh Tracey, an Englishman who fell in love with African music over the course of his 50 year stay in Africa, started a company in the late 1950's called African Musical Instruments (AMI). AMI began shipping kalimbas with the western "Do-Re-Mi..." scale in the early 1960's, and now people all over the world are building and playing kalimbas.