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Like a walking encyclopedia, the jeli can tell the history of many West African peoples. Once jeli acted as advisors, confidants and praise-singers for nable families. Today anyone can hire a jeli to announce a marriage, take part in a naming ceremony, or memorize family history. A jeli sometimes sets words to music. I play the kora - the instrument that I'm holding here. Other jeli play the balafon, an instrument like the xylophone, or the xalam, an instrument like the guitar. To watch an interview of Souriba or to watch him play the kora, select one of the following options. Note: Parts of the following video are in French with English subtitles. The subtitles may be difficult to read on the sixteen screen sized presentations.
The kora is a musical instrument made by attaching a long, wooden neck to a calabash. A kora may have as many as 21 strings. Players pluck and strum the strings and drum on the kora's hollow body. The African-American banjo probably comes from the kora.
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My name
is Souriba Kouyate (SOOR-ee-BA koo-YA-ta). Since the 1300s, members of
my family have been jeli - artisans of the spoken word.
