Over the last 50 years, especially since the publication of Alex Haley's Roots in 1976, the West African Griot has become one of Africa's most ubiquitous, and clichéd, symbols; in Europe and the United States the term has become shorthand for almost all forms of African and Diaspora cultural expression. (An example that I find particularly lazy and erroneous is the description of African hip-hop artists as 'modern day Griots'. If anything, the appeal of rap music to many African youths is that it is the polar opposite of 'Griotism'; young rappers 'speak truth to power', while modern urban Griots sing the praises of the rich and powerful.) The instrument most often associated with the Griot is the kora, the 21-string harp-lute of the Mandinka people. And although today the most internationally visible korafolas are from Mali (Toumani Diabate), and Guinea (the Marseille-based Ba Cissoko), virtually all of the great korafolas can trace their roots to the Gambia, Southern Senegal and Northeastern Guinea-Bissau (Toumani's father Sidiki Diabate was born in the Gambia, and Ba Cissoko's family came from Guinea Bissau). This region was home to the N'Gabu Empire and gave birth to the kora.
The N'Gabu Empire was a confederation of Mandinka states, formed in the mid-1500s by Mandinka immigrants who migrated west from the Mali Empire. The kora was first conceived, according to the oral traditions of the Mandinka griots, by Jali Madi Wuleng. One story goes that Jali Madi Wuleng heard of a jinn that lived in a mysterious lake who granted all wishes. Jali Madi Wuleng went to the lake and asked the jinn to invent for him an instrument that no griot had ever owned. The jinn agreed to create a new instrument in exchange for Jali Madi's sister. Informed of the bargain, Jali Madi's sister agreed and sacrificed herself for the dreams and glory of her brother. If it is impossible to know exactly when the kora was invented, what is certain, however, is that by the demise of the N'Gabu Empire in the late 1860s, the kora was the primary instrument of the Mandinka griots, and that a century later the greatest korafolas were still in the N'Gabu region.
Between 1964 and 1968 the Voice of America recorded two of the era's greatest korafolas. The VOA's African Program Center in Monrovia, Liberia had just recently opened its doors in 1964 when Leo Sarkisian met Papa Susso from the Gambia. As Papa Susso remembers it, 'I was walking down the street in Monrovia, probably on my way back from school, carrying my Kora, when Leo came up and started talking to me. I didn't know Leo, but it was clear that he was passionate about music and interested in the kora. I invited him over to my house and over the following months we became good friends.'
Papa Susso was born in 1947 in the village of Sutuma Sere, not far from the town of Basse, in Eastern Gambia. (As Papa Susso told me, he was 'born into the kora'.) In the early 1960s a friend of his father offered to sponsor Papa Susso's education, and the young korafola was sent to Liberia to enroll in university. In the late summer of 1964, Papa's fourth cousin Tamba Suso (their fathers were cousins) came to visit him in Liberia. Tamba was also born (in 1936) in Sotuma Sere, and the two cousins grew up performing together. Tamba spend two months with Papa Susso in Monrovia, and in the last months of 1964 they made three trips to the VOA studios.
Papa Susso had just turned seventeen when these tracks were recorded; Tamba Suso was in his late twenties. Papa Susso confirmed for me that his VOA recordings were his first. On these first three tracks Papa Susso plays the kora and Tamba sings (the Demba on the reel-label should read Tamba). The combination of Papa's biting kora — he plays with an attack that you rarely hear on kora recordings today — with Tamba's warm and raucous voice is sublime.
Download - Papa Susso & Tamba Susso. VOA African Program Center, Monrovia, Liberia. 1964
Today Papa Susso splits his time between the United States and the Gambia, devoting much of his energy to teaching American and Gambian students. Tamba Suso has retired and currently lives in a suburb of Banjul, the capital of the Gambia.
I have shamelessly taken the picture of Papa Susso from the cover of a CD release by the now defunct Water Lily Acoustics.
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