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KORA:
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artists
A hereditary caste of professional musicians

A PRIMER
known as jelis or griots guards Malian musi-
cal and oral traditions. The kora is one of
their signature instruments, along with the
BY ERIC CALDERWOOD bala (xylophone) and the koni (lute). In 1971,
photo by greg slater Sidiki Diabate, known in his time as the “king
of the kora,” joined another virtuoso, Djelimadi
Sissoko, to record Ancient Strings, which helped
introduce the instrument to Western audiences.
The world’s most famous living kora virtuoso is

History probably Sidiki’s son, 43-year-old Toumani, who

T
comes from 71 generations of kora players, but
he kora is a West African harp with
taught himself to play. “The kora,” he says, “was
21 strings and a large calabash
a gift from God to me.”
gourd body. According to Eric Charry,
a historian of West African music,
the instrument originated in the late 18th cen- Technique
tury, during the era of the Gabu empire, which The kora is played with four fingers: Thumbs
encompassed present-day Guinea Bissau, provide a bass alternation, while the index
southern Senegal and the Gambia. It eventu- fingers improvise melodic runs. The kora’s neck
ally traveled to Mali in the early 20th century isn’t fretted, so each string produces one note—a
via the Dakar-Bamako railway. The traditional distinctive plink that resembles a plucked con-
kora, writes West African-music specialist cert harp or a high-pitched raindrop. Anyone
Lucy Durán, was made by hand with materi- interested in learning to play the instrument can
als from the West African savanna: a calabash visit Diabate’s private kora school in the Malian
gourd cut in half for the resonator; rosewood capital of Bamako. The application process is
for the neck, handles and bridge; and cow or easy, he says: “Just go to the Bamako airport
antelope leather for the sound table, tuning and ask the taxi driver for Toumani’s house!” At
rings and strings. Until the 1970s, most kora the school, students can also learn about the
players attached a metal rattle (nyenyemo) to art of kora construction. “You make your kora,”
the end of the raised bridge, which acted as a Diabate says. “There is no shop.”
natural amplifier and added a percussive
buzzing sound. Today, many ele-
ments of the traditional kora
have changed. The metal
rattle is gone, and wooden
tuning pegs—sometimes
even guitar machine-
heads—have replaced
the leather tuning
rings. The strings,
which were tra-
ditionally made
from thin strips of
finely twisted an-
telope hide, are now
made with nylon fishing
line. Charry writes that
kora players switched to
fishing line because it’s durable
and resistant to changes in weather.
Kora master Toumani Diabate offers a
more ecological explanation: “We had to save
the antelopes!”

20 pastemagazine.com JULY 09