An African xylophone, most famously known as the Balafon, is a traditional percussion instrument from west Africa, featuring wooden slats over a calabashes that amplify its rich, resonant sounds, tuned to pentatonic or heptatonic scales, used across many cultures for celebration and storytelling.

The xylophone are made with wooden keys (often rosewood) which are  set on a frame, with calabash gourds underneath acting as resonators, the holes in the gourds are often covered with thin membranes  for a buzzing, amplified sound played with hard mallet. Different regions such as Chana/Burkina Faso, Zambia and Uganda have unique types.