Hey a thumb piano aka Kalimba!

Greating Brother T to you and your family. Yes it is I am not a musician but I love the sound of our instruments that came from the motherland Africa 🌍 I have a book called Come Sunday a young reader's History of Congo Square by freddi Williams Evans. It is and excellent book. It shows drums made of empty barrel, Balaphon, Kalimba, Congolese-style drum, which a drummer straddled while playing, Flute made from bamboo, Slit drum carved from log, Rattled made from gourds,Jawbone of a mule,Panpipes,Kora banza string instrument made with a gourd. You can see two gourds in the picture that I got from my mother. She lives in Kansas City Kansas. She has had gourd vines

for over 45 year growing in her backyard. As a kid I would paint them and make rattles and also a dipper. Although many people don't realize that member of the cucurbitaceous gourd plant family are indigenous to Africa, hard shell, bottle, and dipping gourds are just a few of the varieties that spread from Africa to tropical areas of Asia and the Americas as early as prehistoric times. You find it in the Bible 1Kings 6:18, 2 Kings 4:38-41, Jonah 4:6. The plant is called by many names Snake plant, mother in law's tongue, viper, bowstring,hemp. It is native to tropical West Africa from Nigeria east to the Kongo. My mother is 87years old she said when she was growing up in Arkansas they used to keep them on the porch in pots and they called them mother in law tongue. Last but not least cotton my mother when she went to Arkansas bought some home. She gave it to me when I went home to see her. She explained how they picked the cotton on their farm and sold it. My grandmother would take some of the cotton and make quilts. So my picture has a story 🌍