Hosho (instrument)

The hosho are Zimbabwean musical instruments consisting of a pair of maranka (mapudzi) gourds with seeds.

[1] Before the hota seeds are added, the hosho is boiled in salted water and the inside is scraped out with a corncob, newspaper plug, or woven wire.

Hosho doesn't add thickness to mbira performance all due to its dense sound quality.

So essential, in fact, that extra vibrating elements such as mirlitons (buzzing membranes made from spider webs) are attached to the resonating tubes of marimbas and machachara (miniature Hosho made from seashells or bottle caps) are attached to the mbira and its deze.

Other related percussion instruments from Zimbabwe include the magavhu (leg rattle) and ngoma (drum).