Ikembe: Burundi musical instrument

Ikembe, Chisanji, Kisanji and Eleke all refer to a type of lamellaphone that is common among the people of Buhutu of Rwanda, Burundi and the Congo. In Swahili, the word “imba” means song, “Kuimba” means to sing as in the phrase “nitakwenda kuimba” means i go to sing , mama means mother. Swahili as true as of many languages uses a bionomial nomenclature to make new word to describe un-acquainted objects, and people based on the existing words and or concepts. By bringing part of the word for mother which is ‘ma’ with the word for song ‘imba’ using r as the connector of the two word we the come up with the word marimba which is mother of song. According to Credo Mutwa Vusamazulu, this identifies the old queen of the Wakamba to the starting area. We can then infer from the research of A.M. Jones as quoted by Osborne that ‘ka’ which is small came together with the word ‘imba’ which is song should mean little mother of song. Another example of this is the use of the suffix ‘ita’ in Spanish as a very small and as such marimba or little marimba that according to Credo is precisely what a karimba is in the mind of a large number of people in Africa and also the Americas.

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source: music.africamuseum.be

Osborne states examples of various names for these mbira from the whole continent that have the Swahili word for song as their starting point. Acceptably, Swahili just like the English is not a virgin language, although rather a combination of a species of languages making it useful for trading reasons. Meanwhile at the root, it is still based on the Bantu languages of the people of the central and Eastern part of Africa that again is why it is as useful as a language of trade.

From the above listed variants we have the following differences. marimba (Tanzania and Mozambique), malimbe (Nyamwezi of Tanzania), likimbe, likembe (Amba of Uganda and the Tabura of the Congo Basin|Congo), (lulimba Yao of Malawi, Tanzania and Mozambique), lukembe (Alur and Acholi of Uganda), irimba and kajimba (Makonde of Tanzania and Mozambique), itshilimba (Bemba of Zambia), karimba (Zimbabwe), kalimba and ikembe Bahutu of Rwanda and Burundi. Many other names have been given to this musical instrument but the most common of the names with this start is undeniable. The spelling of the instrument is not as crucial as the sound that is made in calling out the names.

As a matter of fact, the further we get from the Central and Eastern part of Africa the more different the nomenclature until the most predominant form of the name shows up to have Francophone influence. That is, if an instrument is used for specific dance or group of music, the instrument will be identified with the name of this dance or musical class. Therefore we have the ‘ashiko’, ‘samba’, ‘kpanlogo’ and ‘conga drums’ and each of them with their own specific dances, rhythms and music.