About us

Welcome to the “Imzad Preservation Project”. My name is Ida London, I founded the project in January 2020 in order to inspire global communities to support efforts to preserve the imzad. The imzad is more than a dying instrument of the Toureag; it's a sound that embodies the power and voice of women within this nomadic Maliki Sunni community. I created the first imzad using materials within a 100-mile radius of my home in the United States to understand the mechanics and inner workings of the instrument. I wanted to understand exactly how the imzad was engineered to produce the sound of feminine power in Tuareg society and represent the various autonomy and powers women wield so I decided to create one for myself!

The Construction: 

Here is a condensed summary of the steps I took to make my first successful and sounding Imzad. The first step to build the imzad was finding a right farm with the right sized gourd. I needed a gourd with a diameter of about 29-30cm.

Once I found the perfect gourd, I used a rotary grinder to cut the top part of the gourd off. I then found dried goatskin from an online supplier and I cut it around the imzad to fit its dimensions. For future iterations, I plan to tan and cure the hide myself, but for the first attempt I used pre tanned skin.

 I glued the outer circle of the skin to the outer circle of the gourd and flipped it upside down to let the glue sink in for thirty minutes.

Once this was complete, I punctured two small holes at opposite edges of the skin so I could weave a wooden fitted stick through it. Next, I grinded two very small holes in the center of the skin right next to each other to place two sticks inside. I then tied the sticks together with string to make a V shaped bridge. I then attached a monochord violin string and horse hair over top of the V shape bridge for support and I used yarn string to tie the monochord to the wooden sticks on the edge so it would not fall off.

I then painted designs around the imzad and in the center I included two statements in Tifinagh that read “Imzad” and its alternate spelling “Anzad.” I punctured two sound holes with a diameter of 8mm. The imzad was then complete but I still needed a bow, in order to do this I found an arched stick in my backyard and tied horse hair to the stick. The imzad was complete.