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 has 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. The city Banjul is located on St Mary's Island, where the Gambia River enters the Atlantic Ocean.
Robert Anthony Plant is an English singer and songwriter. He was the lead singer and lyricist of the rock band Led Zeppelin from its founding in 1968 until their breakup in 1980. Since then, he has had a successful solo career, sometimes collaborating with other artists such as Alison Krauss. Regarded by many as one of the greatest singers in rock music, he is known for his flamboyant persona, raw stage performances and his powerful, wide-ranging voice.
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%).
"For The Gambia Our Homeland" is the national anthem of the Gambia. National anthem of the Gambia, written by Virginia Julia Howe and composed by Jeremy Frederic Howe, adopted after an international competition before independence in 1965
The Senegambia is, in the narrow sense, a historical name for a geographical region in West Africa, named after the Senegal River in the north and the Gambia River in the south. However, there are also text sources which state that Senegambia is understood in a broader sense and equated with the term the Western region. This refers to the coastal areas between Senegal and Sierra Leone, where the inland border in the east was not further defined.
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 ethnolinguistic 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.
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.
Assan Musa Camara was a Gambian politician. He served as Vice President of Dawda Jawara, almost continuously from 1972 to 1977, and then again from 1981 to 1982, and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kantora from 1960 to 1987.
The Susu people are a Mande-speaking ethnic group living primarily in Guinea and northwestern Sierra Leone, particularly in Kambia District. Influential in Guinea, smaller communities of Susu people are also found in the neighboring Guinea-Bissau and Senegal.
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.
World Music Network is a UK-based record label specializing in world music.
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.
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.
