This photograph depicts a Nsenga kalimba, together with its gourd resonator. This instrument was acquired in Zambia by ethnomusicologist Hugh Tracey. Like other Zimbabwean musicians, Sekuru Chigamba refers to this type of instrument as a karimba, rather than a kalimba. After encountering a karimba player named Kachonda on the white commercial farm where his father worked, Sekuru Chigamba briefly played the instrument as a young boy. He also positions the karimba as an important step in the origin and development of the mbira dzavadzimu.
Photograph courtesy the International Library of African Music (ILAM).