Learn Kalimba fast with numbers. Learn Kalimba with numbers offline. What are the origins of the Kalimba? The origins of the kalimba can be found in Africa where this instrument would have been invented twice: about 3000 years ago on the west coast towards Cameroon, as an instrument completely in wood with bamboo, rattan or palm blades, and there is about 1300 years old in the Zambezi where we find traces of it with keylimba metal strips. Kalimba is the name given by the ethnomusicologist Hugh Tracey in the 1950s when he began to introduce in the West this musical instrument of African origin, called mbira by the Shonas ethnic group of Zimbabwe. The mbira is an emblematic instrument of the Shonas culture. This instrument has several names depending on the geographical area where it is used: likembe, sanza or senza in Cameroon and Congo, mbira in Zimbabwe and Malawi, lukeme, karimba in Uganda … The Europeans called it thumb keylimba or finger piano but It is under the name of ...