Passing through southern Senegal, they cross the Casamance River by boat for a visit with kora master Malan Diébaté. The cinematography of the countryside, much of it from aerial drones, is magnificent. Sissoko stops at Sibi, where Sunjata is said to have united his armies, made pacts and created the governing constitution of what would become the largest empire in Africa. All of this was part of the Mande empire at its height, as far as the northern reaches of the Niger River at Timbuktu. Travelling by car, Sissoko leaves his capital city Bamako for a voyage of over 1,000km west to the birthplace of the kora on the Gambian coastline. Even if you just touch him, out comes the sound of one of the strings. This person before you, he was born with the kora. One of my favourite lines in the documentary comes from Sissoko’s aunt Kadiatou Diabaté, herself a jeli: Many origin stories of musical instruments in Africa refer to a jinn (genie) first bringing it out. Traditionally, jelis have the exclusive right to play both of these instruments. Just as the bala (Mande xylophone) has origins in Mali in the 1200s, the kora has origins in the Kaabu federation of the Senegambian Mandinka in the 1700s. Screengrab/Ballaké Sissoko: Kora Tales/Vimeo Sissoko at home with his mother Luntandi Sakiliba in Bamako, Mali. Migrations westward to the Senegambia region led to the development of a related language and culture, Mandinka. A visit to Mecca by Mande king Mansa Musa in the 1300s secured his reputation as one of the wealthiest people in the history of the world. At its height, the Mande empire extended across much of western Africa and its mines supplied most of the gold circulating in Europe. In 2008 Unesco declared the instrument a site of intangible cultural heritage and today a museum is being constructed on the site. His name was Balla Faséké Kouyaté and his direct descendants guard that very instrument in a hut in northeastern Guinea. Kante owned the primordial bala (also called balafon), a magical xylophone, which was passed on to the jeli (griot) of Sunjata. This chiefdom rose to power in the 1200s when the legendary Sunjata conquered an oppressive king, Soumaoro Kante, with the help of neighbouring allies. It is intimately intertwined with the history of the Mande homeland along the Niger River, slicing through modern-day Mali and Guinea. Sissoko (right) with Fabouly Diébaté in Senegal. The historyĬonstructed from a large half calabash, cowhide, thick wooden neck and leather tuning loops and strings (now nylon), the kora is several centuries old. That became the basis of my first book in 2000, Mande Music. I wound up in Bamako, living three doors down from Ballaké Sissoko, studying with Sidiki Diabaté (father of Toumani), who lived two doors down. In the 1980s, Senegalese-American kora player Djimo Kouyate inspired me to study regional differences in kora playing in four neighbouring countries. It was an early formative experience that put me on the path towards becoming an ethnomusicologist. I first heard the kora on a 1973 album by Gambian Alhaji Bai Konte. It can be heard on recordings by musicians across the world. The reach of the kora beyond western Africa is expansive. An album featuring the kora with the BBC Symphonic Orchestra was released in 2023. The kora has won more Grammy Awards in the World/Global Music category than the sitar. Dozens and dozens of kora albums have been released since Gambian Jali Nyama Suso’s debut solo album in 1972. If you haven’t heard of the kora, it’s not for lack of exposure. It is one of the most sophisticated handmade musical instruments in the world, both in its musical capabilities and the depth of its tradition.īallaké Sissoko: Kora Tales is a beautifully made film that should be seen by everyone interested in African culture and history. And it can create dazzling, dense musical textures as well as thin shimmering veneers that accompany the delivery of deep oral history. It has 21 strings and is played with four fingers. Like generations before him, he plays the kora, a unique kind of harp that’s indigenous to the western African savannah. Sissoko is a jeli (called a griot by outsiders) – a hereditary oral historian and musician attached to the ruling class.
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