In revivalist groups in Europe, a kind of harmonium was often used to accompany the singing at gatherings in the 19th century. The early and simple versions are also known as Physharmonica (Wikipedia). The production of tones is similar to that of an accordion.
Following is a picture of a simple harmonium in the archives of St. Chrischona:
In the second half of the 19th century, some individuals associated with missions in Ethiopia, such as the Flad family and Onesimos Nesib, owned a harmonium.
Note that even the Head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church from 1841 to 1867, abunä Sälama III, provided Krapf in 1855 with money to buy him a harmonium (Ostertag, Krapf’s Tagebuch, p. 150: “tragbare Orgel”). It is very likely that abunä Sälama learned to play the harmonium in Cairo when he attended the Church Missionary Society school and “seminary” directed by the Revs. Lieder and Kruse.
- Cf. Church Missionary Records 11 (1840): 102: “This class leads the singing at church, on Lord’s Day; and two of the elder lads join in reading the Psalms and Responses of the Liturgy in English. One of the lads—he who accompanied Mr. Krapf to Abyssinia—is privately instructed three hours a week in playing a small kind of organ, called Harmonica; and we hope he will in the course of next year be able to lead the singing at church by this instrument” (emphasis added).
Video
Physharmonica (explanations in German):
Introduction to more complex harmoniums (in English):
References
Flad, Pauline. Eine braune Perle: Erinnerungen aus dem Missionsleben in Abessinien. Neukirchen: Missionsbuchhandlung Stursberg, 1908. [On the harmonium, see p. 37; view online]
Ostertag, Albert. “Die Reise des Missionars Dr. Krapf nach Abessinien im Jahr 1855: Mit einer kirchen- und missionsgeschichtlichen sowie ethnographischen Einleitung über Abessinien,” Magazin für die neueste Geschichte der evangelischen Missions- und Bibelgesellschaften 41, no. 4 (1856): 76-183. [See p. 150; MDZ München]