The world has lost a significant musical ambassador for the Mande people of west Africa – the virtuoso kora player, composer, and collaborator from Mali, Toumani Diabaté . He died on 19 July, just short of his 59th birthday, at the peak of his career. When Toumani was born in Bamako in 1965, neither his surname Diabaté or his instrument, the kora , an iconic 21-stringed African harp, were familiar to anyone outside the Mande region .
By the time Toumani passed, his father Sidiki Diabaté Sr had been known as “the king of the kora” and Toumani himself was world famous, representing the same mastery of the kora as his father but infusing his compositions with improvisation and with contemporary influences, collaborating with artists from a wide range of similar music traditions around the world. His son Sidiki Jr’s star would be on the rise. Read more: Kora: in search of the origins of west Africa's famed stringed musical instrument Kora players like the Diabatés have emerged from a centuries old tradition, the jelis or griots (historians, storytellers and musicians) of west Africa.
He could trace his family line back to the time when the Mande empire (1226-1670) controlled part of west Africa, over 70 generations ago. As a scholar of the music of the Mande people, I have traced Toumani Diabaté’s music and influence for decades and join Malians in celebrating his astonishing contemporary legacy. Early years When Toumani was only seven, in 1971, the Mali gover.