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 Gambia, officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. Geographically, The Gambia is the smallest country in continental Africa; it is surrounded by Senegal on all sides except for the western part, which is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean.
Banjul, officially the City of Banjul, is the capital of The Gambia. It is the centre of the eponymous administrative division which is home to an estimated 400,000 residents, making it The Gambia's largest and most densely populated metropolitan area. Banjul is located on St Mary's Island, where the Gambia River enters the Atlantic Ocean.
The Mali Empire was an empire in West Africa from c. 1226 to 1670. The empire was founded by Sundiata Keita and became renowned for the wealth of its rulers, especially Mansa Musa. At its peak, Mali was the largest empire in West Africa, widely influencing the culture of the region through the spread of its language, laws, and customs.
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%).
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.
Kuntaur is a town located in central part of the Gambia.
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.
Justin Alexander Adams is an English guitarist and composer who works in blues and African styles.
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.
Sona Jobarteh is a Gambian multi-instrumentalist, singer and composer. She is from one of the five principal kora-playing griot families of West Africa, and is the first female professional kora player to come from a griot family. She is the cousin of the celebrated kora player Toumani Diabaté, and is the sister of the diaspora kora player Tunde Jegede.
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.
Invisible System is the pseudonym for the UK & Africa producer Dan Harper whose music involves a fusion of Ethiopian, dub, reggae, techno, trance, drum and bass, jungle, acid, psychedelic, folk, post-punk, goth and rock.
The Battle of Kansala or Turban Keloo was the siege of the capital of the Kaabu federation by the Imamate of Futa Jallon, allied with rebellious Fula people from Kaabu itself. The battle, which saw the town completely destroyed, ended Mandinka hegemony over Africa’s Atlantic coast begun by the Mali Empire.
Lullaby and the Ceaseless Roar is the tenth solo album by English rock singer Robert Plant. It was released on 8 September 2014 on Nonesuch/Warner Bros. Records. It was also Plant's first studio album with his backing band the Sensational Space Shifters, although the band is not credited on the front cover.
Adama Barrow is a Gambian politician and real estate developer who has served as President of the Gambia since 2017.
Digging Deep: Subterranea is a compilation album featuring solo performances from English rock singer Robert Plant, released on 2 October 2020. The songs were assembled as a companion to his podcast series Digging Deep with Robert Plant that explores the composition and recording of hits, album tracks, and previously unreleased songs throughout Plant's post-Led Zeppelin career.
Mussa Moloh, also written as Musa or Moussa Molo was the last king of Fuladu in the Senegambia region. A ruthless and powerful ruler, he played different colonial powers off of each other for decades before being defeated by the French in 1903 and exiled to The Gambia. Musa Molo was the last precolonial leader to exert real territorial control in the region.
Gambian Americans are an ethnic group of Americans of Gambian descent. There are about 8000 Gambians living in the United States, involving themselves in activities ranging from business and entrepreneurship to college education. Additionally, during the Atlantic slave trade, many Africans from what is now The Gambia were traded and were subsequently sold by Europeans and Americans into forced labor in the United States. Gambian immigrants arriving in the United States include members of ethnic groups such as the Mandinka, Wolof, Fula, Jola, and Serahule.
