The name marimba comes from southern Africa where instruments of this sort are plentiful. In recent decades, marimba orchestras out of the Pacific Northwest have sparked a grass-roots movement that is spreading through the United States. These groups generally focus on Shona music from Zimbabwe. But in West Africa, there is a completely different ideophone tradition associated with griots and hunters, the music of the balaphone.
For the Manding people of West Africa the balaphone has particular historical importance.