Monday, December 3, 2007
The Ancestors and the Mbira

The kalimba is a modern member of what the ethnomusicologists call the lamellaphone family. They call the tines "lamella." One of the greatest members of this family is the mbira, a 23-tined instrument played by the Shona people of Zimbabwe.

The mbira

In Shona tradition, the mbira helps people to communicate with their ancestors. In a Bira ceremony, focusing on the spirit of one particular ancestor, musicians play that person's favorite songs in the hopes of attracting that person's spirit. The Shona believe that the spirit will then inhabit a medium's body, and everyone at the Bira ceremony can talk and interact with the ancestor's spirit. A Bira is performed about once a year for each spirit that is important to a family.

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