Ballaké Sissoko Orkestra – Mali
Seperewa Agofoma – Osei Korankye – The Art of the Seperewa Harp – Ghana

“I take hope without touching it. I am a griot, a master in the art of speaking. Since time immemorial, we are the sacks of words, the sacks that hold centuries-old secrets. Without us, the names of kings would fall into oblivion; we are the memory of men.”
D. T. Niane, Soundjata or the Mandingo Epic

It is customary to grant griots certain gifts, such as prophecy and words filled with grace. Holders of traditional knowledge, storytellers, poets, genealogists, historians, advisors to the powerful, mediators, and arbiters… griots help govern an entire social world during celebrations and religious ceremonies. Whether musicians sing of love, the splendor of the Niger River, the epic of Soundiata, time, death, or warn of the challenges of climate change or illegal mining, melody and word are in harmony, for it is a matter of meaning. The implacable and sacred word comes from the kora, whose music does not accompany but amplifies the griot’s voice. This harp-lute, made of a half-calabash covered with cowhide and a neck strung with twenty-one strings, is said to have been stolen from the djinns for its refinement and hypnotic harmonies. Its pentatonic melodies, associated with famous tunes such as Odibadiourou, Koulandjam, Nianimandzougou, Amadidjo, or N’todamana, have established a Mandingo musical heritage that is still transmitted orally. But if today teaching is no longer systematically passed from father to son – as with Djelimady and Ballaké Sissoko – nor even requires the status of a griot, the respect demanded by the instrument remains just as strong within the kora ensemble created in Bamako by Ballaké himself.