African Griot Images

Jali Nyama Suso, The Gambia, 1974
Griot singer Suso is playing the kora (note his name on the instrument).
  Mandingo Jalis, The Gambia, 1974
Members of the Mandingo Jalis with friends.
From left: Dela Kanuteh (with balafon), Aliu S. Dabo (griot), Karunka Suso (with kora), friend, and Mawdo Suso (with balafon).
 


African Griot Music: This is a musical tradition common in Western Africa; the griot is a bard or storyteller who recounts cultural stories through song. There are two examples of griot singing here.

"Kedo," Jali Nyama Suso (recorded 1974, Bakau Village, The Gambia) (296kb wave file)

"Tutu Jara," Dela Kanuteh, Mawdo Suso, and Kurunka Suso (recorded 1974, Bakau Village, The Gambia) (279kb wave file)

Source for images and recommended reading: Samuel Charters, The Roots of the Blues: An African Search (Boston: M. Boyars, 1981).

Go to Sources for the Blues.


Prepared by Professor Catherine Lavender for HSS 502 (Honors Seminar--American Frontiers and Borderlands), The Department of History, The College of Staten Island of The City University of New York. Send email to lavender@postbox.csi.cuny.edu
Last modified: Tuesday 12 September 2000.