Boka Marimba is a ten-member dance band that plays exhilarating, energetic music from Zimbabwe and other areas of southeastern Africa. Much of the music is in the Shona style: melodic themes and variations layered in polyrhythmic, cyclic patterns. Hearing this music for the first time, people have often described the feeling as one of coming home. Some have spoken of dancing for the first time in their lives, or for the first time out of the privacy of their living rooms. People of all ages respond with enthusiasm and delight. The band's instrumentation consists of seven marimbas (three sopranos, two tenors, a baritone, and a bass), gourd shakers called hosho, and drums. The songs are sung in the Shona language. In Shona, boka means "group". And marimba is the plural of rimba which means "wooden voice."