Chopi are a group of ethnic groups living in Mozambique. The Zavala people have lived primarily in the Zavala region of southern Mozambique, which is in the Inhambane Province. It is believed that they traditionally lived a life of subsistence agriculture and lived a rural existence, regardless of the fact that many of them were displaced or killed during the civil war that followed Mozambique's liberation from Portuguese colonial rule in 1975. There was also a drought that drove many people away from their homelands and into the cities of the nation.
Chopi people from southern Mozambique, who are mainly based in the southern part of the province of Inhambane live in separate communities of their own. The Chopi people are very well known for their orchestra music. As a result, their orchestras are composed of five to thirty wooden xylophones, called timbila, which vary in size and pitch in accordance with the instrument's size and pitch range. The timbila, a type of African instrument, is crafted from the highly resonant wood of the mwenje tree which is slow-growing and grows only very slowly in the region. In the middle of each wooden slat is a resonator made of calabashes. The resonator is tightly sealed with beeswax and tempered with the oil of the nkuso fruit, giving each timbila its rich nasal sound and characteristic vibration. There are orchestras with timbila masters and apprentices of all ages playing with the children in their grandfathers' arms while they play.
Throughout the year, the orchestra composes a number of new pieces and presents them at weddings and other large community events. It is important to note, however, that the rhythms within each theme are complex, so that a player's left hand often follows a completely different rhythm than that of the right hand. This performance lasts about an hour and includes solo and orchestral themes accompanied by varying tempi. As closely related to the music are the timbila dances, which are performed by dancers from two to twelve, in the presence of the orchestra. Timbila performances include the solemn m'zeno song, sung by the dancers, accompanied by soft and slow musical accompaniment. The humorous and sarcastic texts in this collection depict contemporary social issues and chronicle the events of the community through the lens of humour and sarcasm.
Most experienced timbila performers are old people. Although several timbila masters have begun to train young musicians, as well as to include girls in their orchestras and dance groups, it seems that young people are increasingly losing touch with this cultural heritage. In addition, the deforestation of the forest has resulted in a scarcity of the kind of wood required to produce the distinctive sound of the timbila instruments.
References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chopi_people https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/chopi-timbila-00133