The name "Autoharp" refers only to instruments made by the Oscar Schmidt company and the companies who have had ownership of the name since.

They may have conned the US legal system into agreeing with that, but autoharps were being made, labelled and sold as "autoharps" in the 19th century. Mine must predate Schmidt's trademark by about 30 years.

I presume the Lutheran missionaries who introduced the instrument to the Pedi brought something made in Germany, not an Oscar Schmidt product.