Musical instruments unique to Africa

Africa is a rich continent within all aspects. Musically, it is historically ancient, which affected its vastness. Technically speaking, traditional African music is passed down orally, and rarely written. African musical instruments has inspired different countries into producing their own instruments that are loosely based on them. Let’s know more about the most unique African instruments:

North Africa

Oud

Egyptian lute players. Fresco from the tomb of Nebamun, a nobleman in the 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt (c. 1350 BC)

It is mostly related to Arabian music, and highly acquainted to Egyptians. There are old Pharos paintings that had them performing on it, used to be called Lute.

Rebab

Had origins from Morocco, but spread to North Africa, Middle East and Europe. It is almost a dead instruments that got replaced with violin, but it is still played in traditional weddings.

Mizwad

Mizwad

Is a traditional Tunisian musical instrument, it literally translates to “sack” or “bag”. It is often played at weddings and formal parties, and has its own traditional dances which are said to make people enter a trance-like state.

Tabla

The origins of Table is unclear. There are so many version of tabla from all over Africa, as well as Indian Origins, and different names from each of these countries. Below are two different shapes of Tabla, one from Egypt and the other from Morocco. 

Egyptian Tabla

Moroccan Table, Darbouka

South Africa

Shekere

A Woven Beaded Shekere

It is a bit similar to the Rumba Shakers, but bigger and surrounded with woven beads, forming a net around a gourd. It is very famous in countries in West Africa, such as Nigeria and Ghana.

Algaita

t is a popular wind instruments also found in West Africa. It comes with a wide opening at the base as well as open finger holes. It is found used in many festivals and ceremonies in Nigeria and Senegal.

Marimba

Is the African version of Xylophone. It was developed in Zimbabwe. They are similar in almost everything, but Marimba has higher octave notes, while an Xylophone has a lower range from 2.5 to 4.

Vuvuzela

Kudu Vuvuzela

Also known as the Lepatata Mambu, is a 65 cm long plastic horn, it has been going on since the 1960s. Traditionally made and inspired from a kudu horn, the vuvuzela was used to summon distant villagers to attend community gatherings. It became widely used in football matches in South Africa, that it became the marketing icon in 2010 FIFA World Cup. It currently changed in shape and became a simple plastic horn, take a look at the photos below:

New Vuvuzela at FIFA

These are the most unique African Musical Instruments. I bet you didn’t know most of them inspired European and American musical genres, right?