Zambia
Lunda

Wood, Gourd, Leather, Raffia
Early 20th century
Idiophone – Struck Directly

A Lunda one-note balafon/xylophone with a calabash resonator called ‘idimba’ found in Zambia.  This idimba is used in hunting rituals. A single wooden bar is suspended over an open dried gourd resonator, amplifying the sound.  Once the animal has been killed the idimba is struck.  While not used to make music, it shows the principles of how the xylophone makes a sound.  According to Jeremy Montagu, the single bar xylophone is played by elephant hunters (presumably for ceremonial dance rather than to attract elephants.)

Resource: Mbila – Wikipedia (below):

This ritual instruments is also referred to as a ‘mbila’ in the Bemba, Bisa, Nsenga, Tabwa (Shila) and Zambia.  The Manganja, a Bantu language group in the Chikwawa area of the Shire Valley in southern Malawi call it ‘limbaby.’  According to the information of a collector (F. Grevisse, 1935) the mbila served as a ritual instrument for the federation of Elephant Hunters.  In preparing such a hunt to commemorate the spirits of the deceased hunters and to call the hunting spirits, even if the hunters were in a camp in the bush, if they had killed an animal or a hunter had died in his activity or naturally, they beat the mbila.