Plastic ware may have taken over, but the gourds occupy an important place in Malawian lifestyle.The gourds can be used as music instruments, cups, buckets, flasks and so much more. Literally, the gourds are calabashes of the rich brew called African culture.
The relic the Tumbuka chief loosely calls nkhombo is termed chikho in the Central Region where mganda dancers use them to fashion badza-a trumpet. The folk blowing instrument is also common in the shoreline cultures of the North with Nkhata Bay and Likoma using it as a prop for malipenga. Learn more at http://mwnation.com/brimming-calabashes-of-phoka/.