kaffir piano, noun phrase

Origin:
EnglishShow more kaffir + English piano.
obsolescent, offensive
1. Any of a wide variety of indigenous multiple-keyed wooden percussion instruments, sometimes with tuned gourd resonators attached to the keys. See also mbila.
1891 R. Monteiro Delagoa Bay 253This song had a rapidly played accompaniment on the ‘Kafir piano’.
1895 A.B. Balfour 1200 Miles in Waggon 64Kaffir pianos..consist of two logs of wood wrapped in rags, laid parallel to each other on the ground in front of the player. Side by side across these are placed a number of slats of wood about fifteen inches long, which are actively hammered upon with a couple of drumsticks.
1899 R. Devereux Side Lights on S. Afr. 58Others played wild airs on the row of graduated sticks, usually described as a ‘Kaffir piano’.
1913 C. Pettman Africanderisms 242Kaffir piano,..Made of flat bars of hard wood fastened across a frame, beneath which a number of calabash shells are fixed. The bars of wood when struck emit sounds that are not at all unmusical.
1931 J. Mockford Khama 157To the throb and wail of these kafir pianos the big-bodied, lusty mine-boys dance freely in two long lines.
1948 H.V. Morton In Search of S. Afr. 311A native band was thrumming on ‘Kaffir pianos’, instruments like large xylophones.
1967 E. Rosenthal Encycl. of Sn Afr. 278Made of strips of wood varying in length, but strung along a series of calabashes which serve as a sounding board...Kaffir pianos are used for native dances.
2. mbira.
1897 J. Bryce Impressions of S. Afr. 251The so-called ‘Kaffir piano’, made of pieces of iron of unequal length fastened side by side in a frame.
[1925 D. Kidd Essential Kafir 332The natives have two forms of ‘piano’. One..is made by supporting different lengths of a special wood over two strings; when the pieces of wood are struck with a hammer they emit musical notes which vary with the length of the piece of wood. The other..is made by fastening a good many pieces of iron of different lengths into a hollow calabash; this is decorated with many pieces of shell which jingle when the apparatus vibrates.]
1949 E. Hellmann Handbk on Race Rel. 626Mbira (so-called kaffir pianos), upon which Africans may play their traditional music and interchange tribal compositions without having recourse to expensive foreign instruments.
1963 S. Cloete Rags of Glory 347Reeling a little as if drunk, singing to himself, and playing the Kaffir piano in his hand.
1968 L.G. Green Full Many Glorious Morning 153He listened to a native playing the mbira or kaffir piano with such exquisite melancholy that he became homesick and decided to return at once.
Any of a wide variety of indigenous multiple-keyed wooden percussion instruments, sometimes with tuned gourd resonators attached to the keys.
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obsolete or obsolescent
derogatory or offensive
kaffir dog, noun phrasen. phr.kaffir-sheeting, nounn.
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