Mbira was popular in Ibadan and Ijebu areas of Yoruba land

The agidigbo is a large traditional plucked lamellophone used by the Yoruba people of Nigeria.

Its appearance is piano-like; a rope is worn round the neck of the player who then supports or braces the instrument, whose body is a

The player wears a thick “ring,” usually a bottle neck, on his thumb, which he uses to tap the sides of the wooden box.

He then uses his ten fingers to pluck the instrument’s metal tongues, producing very sonorous tones, as he accompanies a sekere, or waka or an apala band.

The instrument is most popular in the Ibadan and Ijebu areas of Yorubaland.

Babatunde Olatunji famously plays an agidigbo on “Oyin Momo Ado” (Sweet as Honey), which is track 7 on his 1959 Drums of Passion album.

The traditional music of Africa, given the vastness of the continent, is historically ancient, rich and diverse, with different regions and nations of Africa having many distinct musical traditions.

Traditional music in most of the continent is passed down orally (or aurally) and is not written.

In Sub-Saharan African music traditions, it frequently relies on percussion instruments of every variety, including xylophones, drums, and tone-producing instruments such as the mbira or “thumb piano.”

The music and dance of the African diaspora, formed to varying degrees on African musical traditions, include American music and many Caribbean genres, such as soca, calypso (see kaiso) and zouk.

Latin American music genres such as the rumba, conga, bomba, cumbia and samba were also founded on the music of enslaved Africans, and have in turn influenced African popular music.

The mbira (pronounced m-BEER-ra , IPA (ə)mˈbɪəɾə) is an African musical instrument, traditional to the Shona people of Zimbabwe.

It consists of a wooden board (often fitted with a resonator) with attached staggered metal tines, played by holding the instrument in the hands and plucking the tines with the thumbs (at minimum), the right forefinger (most mbira), and sometimes the left forefinger. 

Musicologists classify it as a lamellaphone, part of the plucked idiophone family of musical instruments.

In Eastern and Southern Africa, there are many kinds of mbira, often accompanied by the hosho, a percussion instrument. It is often an important instrument played at religious ceremonies, weddings, and other social gatherings.

Though an ancient instrument, it was commercially produced and exported by ethnomusicologist Hugh Tracey from the 1950s onward, popularizing the instrument outside Africa; Tracey’s design was modeled after the mbira nyunga nyunga.

Mbira became popularized largely due to the success of Thomas Mapfumo in the 1980s, who included mbira on stage accompanying modern rock instruments such as electric guitar and bass, drum kit, and horns.

Mapfumo’s arrangements included numerous songs directly drawn from traditional mbira repertoire. Other notable influencers bringing mbira music out of Africa are: Dumisani Maraire, who brought marimba and karimba music to the American Pacific Northwest; Ephat Mujuru, who was one of the pioneer teachers of mbira dzavadzimu in the US; the writings and recordings of Zimbabwean musicians made by Paul Berliner.

Babatunde Olatunji (1927–2003), Nigerian drummer, educator, social activist.

Olatunji was a music educator, and invented a method of teaching and recording drum patterns which he called the “Gun-Dun, Go-Do, Pa-Ta” method after the different sounds made on the drum.

He taught drum and dance workshops year-round starting in the late 1950s.

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KSI stands for Knowledge, Strength, Integrity. He has the word “Knowledge” tattooed across his chest, and has “Strength” and “Integrity” tattooed on each of his arms.