Brikama Jali Kunda: Griot of Yesterday and Today

Abstract

Serving as educators, genealogists, historians, musicians, and storytellers, griots play a fundamental role in Mandinka society. Following Mandinka tradition, Jaliba Kouyaté (or simply Jaliba, as he is commonly known), the celebrated griot from Brikama who is at the center of this study, is a well-known guardian of Mandinka cultural heritage in Gambia and Senegal (Senegambia). This griot-composer who is also a kora virtuoso and the lead vocalist for his Koumaré Band, shines not only within the music scene in Senegambia, but also in other influential Mandinka areas such as Guinea Bissau. Since the 1980s his art has stood out due to its combination of classic and contemporary kora, the Mandinka twenty-one string harp-lute, and its emphasis on the education and awakening of consciousness of Senegambians. Whether with noble genres or their reinvention in various musical forms, Jaliba Kouyaté continues to renew the art of the Mandinka griot without losing sight of his primary mission: to contribute to the enhancement of the individual and collective development of Senegambians who are his patrons, or jatiyo. This paper explores jaliya — the art of griot — in the work of Jaliba. In addition to examining the directions and techniques of his music and his use of musical poetry and dialogue to describe contemporary events, it analyzes his capacity to create worlds that reconstruct the Mandinka culture and civilization and to evoke through his kora new pages of Mandinka history.