The kora is a stringed instrument used extensively in West Africa. A kora typically has 21 strings, which are played by plucking with the fingers. It combines features of the lute and harp.
The balafon is a gourd-resonated xylophone, a type of struck idiophone. It is closely associated with the neighbouring Mandé, Bwaba Bobo, Senoufo and Gur peoples of West Africa, particularly the Guinean branch of the Mandinka ethnic group, but is now found across West Africa from Guinea, Burkina Faso, Mali. Its common name, balafon, is likely a European coinage combining its Mandinka name ߓߟߊ bala with the word ߝߐ߲ fôn 'to speak' or the Greek root phono.
Senegal's music is best known abroad due to the popularity of mbalax, a development of conservative music from different ethnic groups and sabar drumming popularized internationally by Youssou N'Dour.
The music of Mali is, like that of most West African nations, ethnically diverse, but one influence predominates: that of the ancient Mali Empire of the Mandinka. Mande people make up around 50% of Mali's population; other ethnic groups include the Fula (17%), Gur-speakers 12%, Songhai people (6%), Tuareg and Moors (10%).
A griot is a West African historian, storyteller, praise singer, poet, and/or musician.
The Mandinka or Malinke are a West African ethnic group primarily found in southern Mali, The Gambia, southern Senegal and eastern Guinea. Numbering about 11 million, they are the largest subgroup of the Mandé peoples and one of the largest ethnic-linguistic groups in Africa. They speak the Manding languages in the Mande language family, which are a lingua franca in much of West Africa. Virtually all of Mandinka people are adherent to Islam, mostly based on the Maliki jurisprudence. They are predominantly subsistence farmers and live in rural villages. Their largest urban center is Bamako, the capital of Mali.
The music of the Gambia is closely linked musically with that of its neighbor, Senegal, which surrounds its inland frontiers completely. Among its prominent musicians is Foday Musa Suso. Mbalax is a widely known popular dance music of the Gambia and neighbouring Senegal. It fuses popular Western music and dance, with sabar, the traditional drumming and dance music of the Wolof and Serer people.
The music of West Africa has a significant history, and its varied sounds reflect the wide range of influences from the area's regions and historical periods.
Alhaji Bai Konte (1920–1983) was a jali from Brikama, Gambia. His grandfather, Jali Ndaba Konteh, was a Konting player who originally brought his family to Brikama from the Kankaba region of Mali. Bai Konte's father, Burama Konte, was also a celebrated kora player and composed several important pieces in the repertoire. Burama Konte, composed the anthem of the 19th century Senegambian hero Mansumaneh Yundum, Yundum N'ko. It was from that piece that the anthems of Sheriff Sidi Hydara and Nyansu Mbasse originated. Burama Konteh was a well-known kora player of his generation. Bai Konte was a regular on Radio Gambia and Radio Senegal's joint program called Chossani Senegambia in the 1970s. He and other griots such as Jali Nyama Suso and Alhaji Abdoulaye Samba used to play live music during the show. Bai Konteh had narrated many epics on that show including the epic of King Abdou Njie and his griot and advisor Ibra Faye. Prominent broadcasters of that show included Alhaji Alieu Ebrima Cham Joof, Alhaji Assan Njie and Alhaji Mansour Njie.
Mory Kanté was a Guinean vocalist and player of the kora harp. He was best known internationally for his 1987 hit song "Yé ké yé ké", which reached number-one in Belgium, Finland, the Netherlands, and Spain. The album it came from, Akwaba Beach, was the best-selling African record of its time.
Foday Musa Suso is a Gambian musician and composer. He is a member of the Mandinka ethnic group, and is a griot. Griots are the oral historians and musicians of the Mandingo people who live in several west African nations. Griots are a living library for the community providing history, entertainment, and wisdom while playing and singing their songs. It is an extensive verbal and musical heritage that can only be passed down within a griot family.
Kaabu (1537–1867), also written Gabu, Ngabou, and N'Gabu, was a federation of Mandinka kingdoms in the Senegambia region centered within modern northeastern Guinea-Bissau, large parts of today's Gambia, and extending into Koussanar, Koumpentoum, and the Casamance in Senegal.
Daniel Laemouahuma Jatta is a Jola scholar and musician from Mandinary, Gambia, who pioneered the research and documentation of the akonting, a Jola folk lute, as well as the related Manjago folk lute, the buchundu, in the mid-1980s. Prior to Jatta's work, these instruments were largely unknown outside the rural villages of the Senegambia region of West Africa.
Lamin Saho is a kora player, vocalist, griot, and the leader of the band Roots and Culture. He lives in The Gambia, in West Africa, and he is the oldest son of the Yankuba Saho, who was a griot also.
Seckou Keita is a kora player and drummer from Senegal. He is one of the few champions of the lesser-known kora repertoire from Casamance in southern Senegal.
Dembo Konte(or Konté) and Kausu Kuyateh were master kora players from West Africa. They were also singers and, above all, jalis; storytellers and guardians of oral tradition, preserving the history of people and events via their music. Stories and history are passed down from generation to generation by this method within families and groups of friends, ensuring survival of such stories for centuries. The jali sings the praises of his friends and benefactors, warns the politicians of their errors and admonishes the listeners to live right. Their music encapsulates the Mandinka culture.
African Journey: A Search for the Roots is a blues album by an American historian Samuel Charters and an attempt to trace the roots and influences of American blues from the 1920s and 1930s back to the tribal music of West Africa. He draws connections and similarities through song content and instrument type and usage. In 1974 he traveled the length of the crescent from Senegal to Nigeria. He then returned to travel up the Gambia River to a slave pen at Jang Jang Bure. His travel path emulated the paths of slave traders. All the musical performances were recorded by means of a tape recorder. The album was released as a double vinyl set. Volume One contains songs performed by historians as well as celebratory songs from The Gambia, Senegal, and Mali. Volume Two consists of funeral processions, dances, and songs from Ghana, Togo and The Gambia.
Mamadou Sidiki Diabaté is a prominent Mandé kora player and jeli from Bamako, Mali. He is the 71st generation of kora players in his family and a son to Sidiki Diabaté.
Juldeh Camara is a griot, as well as an internationally followed blues musician and recording artist who has appeared on 21 albums. He is known for his instrumental virtuosity and for his collaborations with European, African, and other artists. His instrument is an African one-string fiddle, known as Nyanyero in his native Fula language or Riti in the Wolof language.
Gambian literature consists of the oral and written literary tradition of the people of the Gambia. Oral literature, including the traditional griots and various forms of ritual poetry, has historically been the predominant type of cultural transmission in line with the wider Senegambia. An English-language, written Gambian literature has emerged since the 1960s, spearheaded by Lenrie Peters.
