African Music – The Blog of Samite

Posts Tagged ‘finger harp’

by Jessica Rich

In this African Music Blog post, Samite shares his experiences from his most recent trip to Uganda in May 2010.

First, it is important to provide a brief introduction to the most recent political situation in the region. Over the past several years, the Acholi people of Northern Uganda have emerged wounded, but not broken, from a violent rebel movement led by Joseph Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). The goal of Kony, a self-described religious prophet, is to restore the Ugandan Constitution with the Ten Commandments, an effort that he directs by weakening the will of the Acholi, devastating their homes and their families.

In the past two decades, according to the Enough Project, Kony’s army “has abducted as many as 40,000 children, forcing them to serve as soldiers, porters, or sex slaves.” Many children, who will have witnessed the brutality with which the LRA ravaged their villages, were orphaned and taken to protected camps for internally displaced people (IDP). While the LRA’s influence in the region has waned since 2006, due to the Ugandan government’s efforts to restore stability, the group’s violence has left many children and adults with horrific memories and few resources with which to cope.

This past spring, Samite traveled to Kampala, Uganda on behalf of his organization, Musicians for World Harmony, which was developed, as Samite states, “to bring joy and healing to war-torn areas.” The trip was coordinated with help from the Soroti-based agency, Action Against Child Abuse and Neglect (AACAN). Working with children of war is a rewarding yet complex undertaking. Despite international humanitarian efforts in places like Northern Uganda, Samite has seen that child soldiers are often ignored. “I feel like they need a voice. Their childhood is stolen [and] they need to be taken care of.”

During Samite’s most recent trip, he partnered with Maurice Kirya, a Uganda-based musician. In keeping with the African tradition of healing communities through the power of music, Samite and Maurice worked with former child soldiers to provide them with an artistic outlet through which to recover from the trauma of war. Samite and Maurice met with three young men, Mercy, Phillip and Justin, in hopes of bringing another form of healing to their world with music. The musicians introduced different instruments to the group, including the guitar, as well as traditional African instruments such as the finger harp (or kalimba).

In our next post, the African Music Blog will share the music that Samite and Maurice created with these three young men.

Responsibilities of child care often fall on grandmothers.

IDP (Internally Displaced People) Camp

The Finger Harp is known by many names in Africa: mbira, kalimba and ikembe, though various regions of the continent use one name more than others.

This beautiful sounding instrument traces its roots to the 1920s and businessman Hugh Tracey who emigrated from England to Zimbabwe, formerly Rhodesia.  He came to assist his brother with a tobacco farm however he was quickly enchanted by the local culture.

Music was particularly intriguing to Tracey.  By the 1960s he created a kind of mbira called the kalimba which became popular throughout the world.  The performer is able to use both thumbs to play harmony and for that reason, the kalimba, translated as “little music”, is popular in the West.  The kalimba is also played in Asia, the Middle East and South and North America because of its ease of use.

The mbira is similar. Like the kalimba it uses wood and strings to produce sound.  The mbira has metal tongues called lamellas on top.  The sound box itself if made of wood or gourd, and demonstrating the industrious spirit of the African people, the metal keys are sometimes make from old mattress spring wire, bicycle spokes or the handles of spoons.

Sound is produced by plucking the strings with the thumbs, or thumbs and fingers.  It is common to find holes drilled into the sides of the box so the musician can vary the resonance and sound by blocking the holes.

All of the finger harps produce a sound that is well suited for diverse melodies and rhythms.  There are usually two melodic parts in the music created for this instrument; a kushaura and a kutsinhira, and the sound is typically a pattern of four 12 beat phrases.

The Finger Harp is often played along with other performers who clap and sing, making this instrument a joyful and soulful expression of African sound.

Click on the picture of Samite at the lower right to order his new CD, “My Music World”.

The translation of Kalimba is little music, and it is a perfect blend of African sounds adapted to include Western tastes.

Developed in the 1960s by Englishman Hugh Tracey, it is often referred to as the thumb piano for allowing the musician to play harmony using both thumbs.

Tracey relocated from Great Britain to Zimbabwe, formerly Rhodesia, to assist in the operation of a tobacco farm owned by his brother in the 1920’s. While there, he became fascinated by the African music culture, particularly an instrument called the mbira.  Tracey invented the modern Kalimba based on the construction of the mbira.

There is some cross-pollination of these instruments in Africa.  In Zimbabwe the population still refers to the instrument as the mbira and in Kenya they say Kalimba.  To further confuse the issue, in Rwanda and the Congo the instrument is called an ikembe.  Less common names are the sanza, marimba and marimbula.

Perhaps the most generic name for this marvelous instrument is the thumb piano, gourd piano and finger harp.

Essentially, the Kalimba, pronounced ka-leem’-buh, is a wooden box with metal keys called lamellas adhered to the top.  The keys are sometimes made from cane while the box is made from an African hardwood called kyat.

Traditional African self-reliance has some of these beautiful instruments fashioned out of bicycle spokes, spoon handles or discarded wire that is shaped into the necessary length for plucking.   These strings are plucked with the two thumbs or a combination of thumbs and fingers.

The strings or keys are 20 to 24 in number, placed on two bars on the sound box.  The loose ends of the keys are various lengths which provide the different pitches.  Like any stringed instrument of the West, a longer string produces a lower pitch and a shorter string accords a higher pitch.

Our friend Samite is a master of Kalimba music, so why not invite his artistry into your home?

Order Samite’s latest CD.