Musical instruments in Zambia: board zither

Musical instruments in Zambia: board zither. The manyema was a board zither with three strings and a gourd as a resonator. It resembles the ngyela, with seven strings, described for the Luba region¹Laurenty (1971: 55). and the isese, with two strings, described for the Lamba region²Doke (1931: 364).. The player held it like a banjo, either striking or plucking.

A plank was connected to a topped-off gourd which made a humming resonation. It had no mirliton. Parallel to the plank were three strings of different thickness, obtained by twining rope (lushishi, the root fibre of the mubanga tree). They were stretched by putting two bridges of wood at either end of each string. The strings’ names were iyikulu, cibitiku and kace.
Like the kalimba and the kantimbwa, it was a men’s instrument with the same kinds of songs and occasions for use. The last one who could play it was Kalota, who died early in the 1980s. We have no photos of the manyema nor recordings of its repertoire.

Musical instruments in Zambia: board zither. For the Luba region in Congo, Laurenty reports that hunters’ associations use the instrument in an ensemble of ilimba, cisekele and mikoci (played on a bottle). This ensemble is similar to the ing’omba ensemble in the Lala region in the first half of the previous century. However, nobody remembers the use of the manyema in the ing’omba ensemble.