The mbira can be classified as a lamellaphone (after the tongues or tines) and has its origins in Africa. It is unique in that it wholly evolved within that continent. It was first reported in European travellers' reports in 1586 where it already had the hallmarks of a perfect instrument.

The mbira can be found throughout Africa with a number of different names, such as sanzhi, likembe, kalimba, sansa, ilimba and thumb piano but its construction is always fundamentally the same.

They consist of a set of tuned metal or bamboo tongues (lamellae) of varying length attached at one end to a soundboard that often has a box or calabash resonator. Board-mounted lamellaphones are often played inside gourds or bowls for increased resonance, and the timbre may be modified by attaching rattling devices to the board or resonator or by attaching metal cuffs at the base of the tongues.

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The lamellaphone is often classified as a plucked idiophone, i.e., and an instrument whose sounding parts are resonant solids. This term, however, is not strictly accurate, because the tongues are not plucked but rather depressed and released with the thumbs and fingers. The lamellaphone is commonly played as an accompaniment to song, but in some areas, it is used for purely instrumental music.

The tuning is to definite scales, peculiar to each tribe, the pitch being determined by the length of each tongue. This tuning can be easily altered by moving the tongue in and out in relation to the bridge. Sometimes bees' wax is placed on the tongue to flatten the note.

It is widely distributed throughout sub-Saharan Africa in the same regions as the xylophone; to which its tuning is similar and with which it shares several local names.

In the Shona culture of Zimbabwe, the mbira consists of hand-forged, tuned metal keys bound to a wooden soundboard called a gwariva. Usually, it also has some method of amplifying the sound (often a hollowed, dried gourd) and items to create the characteristic buzzing sound (metal beads, snail shells, and recently, bottle caps).

Although the mbira can be found in different shapes and sizes across the country, the most traditional one is the mbira dzavadzimu (vadzimu means ancestors, the mbira of the ancestors). It is the only one solely associated with religious worship and the only one to solely originates from Zimbabwe.