Timbila are African xylophones that are of special cultural importance to the Chopi people of southern Mozambique. Chopi artisans make timbila slats from the mwenje (“sneezewort”) tree and attach resonant calabash gourds, sealed with bees wax, below. Multi-generational Chopi timbila orchestras may consist of up to thirty timbilas playing at the same time.
Let Unesco teach you about the Chopi and their timbila.
The Nyanga pan pipes are a bamboo or reed instrument composed of multiple small tubes of varying length tied together. Sometimes the tubes have wax stoppers at the end, making for a lower sound, other times they are open and sound higher. Similar to pipes played by the Greek god Pan, this particular flute originated with the Nyungwe people of Mozambique. Let Ryan Mosey and his Nyanga Pan Flute Prezi tell you a bit more.
Marrabenta is a popular form of Mozambican dance music. The genre originated in the ’30s and ’40s while the Portuguese still ruled Mozambique and the older local bands tried to simulate traditional African dance rhythms using Portuguese instruments. Today’s marrabanta bands primarily play electronic instruments like guitars and keyboards and have brought many global genres into their music, like blues and reggae.
A fun fact from Wikipedia’s entry on Marrabenta: “According to vocalist Dilon Djindje, Marrabenta is named for the energetic performances he delivered as he toured across Mozambique. The intensity and vitality of his shows led audiences to believe that he was breaking the emotional limits of those in attendance. The musicians who played this music came to be called arrabenta, a Portugese term for ‘break it.'”
