The sanzas, belonging to the category of plucked idiophones, have very different shapes and sizes. The term SANZA or SANSA is probably the commonest (in the West) to describe the instrument in question. However, given its capillary diffusion throughout black Africa, it is known locally by a great variety of different names: MBIRA in Zimbabwe; OBUDONGO and LIKEMBE in some areas of Uganda and Zaire and CHITATA in Mozambique to mention only a few.
In general, these are boards of varying thicknesses, often with soundboxes (again of varying thicknesses), on which a variable number of strips are applied. In olden times the strips could be of plant origin, of bamboo or fibres; today they are almost exclusively made of metal, fixed to the sound box by curved nails and aligned on wooden, metal or fibre bridges. This is one of the most typically African instruments, with origins going back to strips of raffia (or other plants) held taut on the lips and made to vibrate with the breath. In the image we can see two examples of MBIRA from Zimbabwe which only differ in that one has a soundbox and the other does not and the number of keys. The one placed vertically is a SANZA from Zaire. Its characteristics are the resonators (rattles of various kinds: small iron tubes, glass beads, metal bottle tops) applied to the strips or directly on to the soundbox. The rattles vibrate during the use of the instrument, by being shaken or directly by their contact with the strips.
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