MAYA JOBARTEH, although living in England, comes from a long line of West African musicians practising the griot tradition. This tradition makes a point of encouraging the need and desire of young people within the griot families to learn music, and it’s common for them to play several instruments. The griot culture gives a grounding in the art of music itself. Students can then apply it to whichever instrument they’re drawn to.
So the guitar isn’t a traditional West African instrument. But the evolution of guitar in the centre of Malian classical and pop music is part of a long tradition of borrowing techniques from other instruments and adapting them to a new form of music. The kora borrowed many stylistic phrasings from older instruments such as the konting and balafon in developing its own instrumental language, which in turn had been borrowed from the vocal traditions.
