Ikembe is a type of musical instrument in the lamellaphone group, widely used by people in Rwanda, Burundi, and the Congo. The instrument has several iron lamellae attached to a rectangular wooden soundbox.

In Swahili, the word "imba" means song, and "kuimba" means to sing, as in the phrase "nitakwenda kuimba" (I go to sing). Swahili, like many languages, creates new words by combining parts of existing words. For example, the word "marimba" is formed by combining "ma" (mother) and "imba" (song), using "r" as a connector, meaning "mother of song." Research by A.M. Jones, as noted by Osborne, suggests that "ka" (small) combined with "imba" (song) could mean "little mother of song."

Osborne provides examples of names for similar instruments across Africa, many of which use the Swahili word for song as their root. Swahili is not a single language but a mix of many languages, making it useful for trade. However, it is based on Bantu languages from Central and East Africa, which is why it is helpful for communication. A quick look at the roots of these names shows common variations: imba, imbe, and embe.

Examples of these variations include: likimbe and likembe (Amba of Uganda and Tabura of the Congo Basin), lulimba (Yao of Malawi, Tanzania, and Mozambique), lukembe (Alur and Acholi of Uganda), irimba and kajimba (Makonde of Tanzania and Mozambique), itshilimba (Bemba of Zambia), karimba (Zimbabwe), kalimba, and ikembe (Bahutu of Rwanda and Burundi). Many other names exist, but most share this common root. The spelling of these names is less important than the sounds made when saying them. [1] Archived 2024-03-19 at the Wayback Machine