Instrument · The Gambia · Mali · Guinea · Senegal
Kora
The kora is a 21-string instrument with a long neck and a body made from a half calabash covered with cowhide, played by the jeli or griot families of the Mandinka in The Gambia, Senegal, Mali and Guinea. The strings are plucked with the thumbs and index fingers, so one player makes both a bass line and a melody.
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What a kora is
The kora is a harp-lute with 21 strings: a long wooden neck passes through a large half-calabash covered with cowhide, which acts as a resonator, and the strings run from the neck to a bridge on the skin. Strings were once made of hide or gut; today many players use nylon fishing line. The musician holds the instrument upright in front of them and plucks it with the thumbs and the index fingers of both hands, which lets one player sound a bass line and a melody at once.
The word kora is also a name for other things, and searches for it can bring up unrelated results; on this page it always means the West African instrument.
The jeli tradition
The kora belongs to the jeli (in French, griot), the hereditary musicians, historians and praise-singers of the Mande world. Traditionally, to play the kora and carry the title of jeli is a privilege held by a few families. Three dynasties are named as its custodians: the Kouyaté, the Jobarteh (Jobate, Diabaté) and the Cissoko (Sissoko). The repertoire of the kora has long included praise songs and the epics of the Mande, and today also new compositions.
Where it comes from
Sources do not agree. One account puts the origin of the kora in the old Mali Empire and credits a first jeli with starting a prestigious line of players; another places its first maker in the kingdom of Kaabu; others say it developed from calabash harps in the Mandinka lands of The Gambia, southern Senegal and Guinea-Bissau. These accounts rest on oral tradition and the exact origin is unrecorded. Whichever is right, it is firmly an instrument of the Mande peoples.
Toumani Diabaté
Toumani Diabaté (1965–2024) was the best-known kora player of his time and the person who did most to bring the instrument to audiences abroad. Born in Mali into a line of jeli, he spoke of himself as the 71st generation of kora players in his family. His album In the Heart of the Moon, recorded with the Malian guitarist Ali Farka Touré, won the 2006 Grammy Award for Traditional World Music Album. He made New Ancient Strings with another Malian kora player, Ballaké Sissoko, a tribute to the earlier album Ancient Strings, made by an older generation of kora players. Diabaté died on 19 July 2024, at the age of 58. His son Sidiki Diabaté is also a kora player.
Kora and other instruments
The kora is often played with the balafon and the djembe in Mande music. Like the mbira and the kalimba it is played with the thumbs, but it is a string instrument, not a lamellophone. For its wider setting, see West Africa and African musical instruments.
Questions
What is a kora?
A 21-string West African harp-lute with a calabash body, played by plucking with the thumbs and index fingers.
How many strings does a kora have?
Twenty-one.
Where does the kora come from?
From the Mandinka and other Mande peoples of West Africa, today especially The Gambia, Senegal, Mali and Guinea. Its exact origin is unrecorded.
Who plays the kora?
Traditionally the jeli or griot families, above all the Kouyaté, Jobarteh (Diabaté) and Cissoko (Sissoko) lines; today also players from outside those families.
Who is the most famous kora player?
Toumani Diabaté, of Mali, who died in 2024.
Further reading
For other instruments of the region, read about the balafon and the talking drum.
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