Instrument · Guinea · Mali · Burkina Faso
Balafon
The balafon is a xylophone of the Mande peoples of West Africa: wooden slats of different lengths fixed to a frame, with gourds hung beneath each one to amplify the sound. Its most celebrated example is the Sosso-Bala, an instrument kept at Niagassola in Guinea whose cultural space UNESCO listed in 2008.
Published 2 min read
What a balafon is
The balafon is a wooden xylophone: a row of slats cut to different lengths, laid over a frame, each with a gourd resonator hung below it. A player strikes the slats with two or more mallets, and the gourds make the notes carry. Among the Mande peoples the instrument is called a bala; it is played in Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso and neighbouring countries, with different sizes and numbers of slats in each region.
It is sometimes simply called the African xylophone, though xylophones are played in many parts of Africa; few are so closely tied to the history of one people.
The Sosso-Bala
The most famous balafon is the Sosso-Bala, kept in the village of Niagassola in northern Guinea. It is described as dating from the thirteenth century and as about 1.5 metres long, with twenty wooden slats and several gourds under each slat. In the Mande tradition it is linked to the epic of Sunjata Keita, the founder of the Mali Empire, and UNESCO records that the legend says it was either made by a king himself or given to him by a jinni, a spirit.
Only one person may play it on important occasions: the balatigui, the patriarch of the Dökala family, who is its guardian. In 2001 UNESCO proclaimed the Cultural Space of the Sosso-Bala a masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity, and in 2008 it entered the Representative List. UNESCO calls the instrument a symbol of the freedom and cohesion of the Mandinka community, and notes that it carried epic poems, above all the Sunjata epic, through the centuries. It also warns that tradition is threatened as young people leave the villages and there are fewer pupils to learn from the masters.
Playing the balafon
The balafon accompanies praise-singing, the recitation of epics and dance, and many celebrated players come from the Mande jeli families that also produce kora players. It is also played with the djembe and the kora in modern Mande ensembles and in popular music from Mali and Guinea.
One of the best-known players abroad is Balla Kouyaté, a Malian balafon player honoured as a National Heritage Fellow by the United States' National Endowment for the Arts.
Questions
What is a balafon?
A West African xylophone with wooden slats and a gourd resonator under each.
What is the Sosso-Bala?
A balafon kept at Niagassola, Guinea, said to date from the thirteenth century, and the heart of a cultural space on UNESCO's Representative List since 2008.
Where is the balafon played?
Across West Africa, especially among the Mande peoples of Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso.
Is the balafon the same as a marimba?
They are related instruments of the xylophone type, but not the same. The balafon has gourd resonators and is played in West Africa.
Further reading
Read about the talking drum, West Africa and African musical instruments.
Photographs
