Arts + Culture
Chi wara: the Bamana antelope headdresses that honour the first farmer
Chi wara headdresses, carved by the Bamana people of Mali, show stylised antelopes. Worn in pairs by dancers…
Mali
Music
Ballaké Sissoko: the Malian kora master of quiet conversations
Ballaké Sissoko, a Malian kora player from a griot family, is known for subtle, intimate music. His duets…
Arts + Culture
The Dogon kanaga mask: dancing for the dead on the Bandiagara cliffs
The Dogon people of Mali's Bandiagara Escarpment are known for their masked dances, above all the kanaga mask…
Music
Kassé Mady Diabaté: the griot voice of Mali who sang with Buena Vista veterans
Kassé Mady Diabaté, born into a griot family in Mali in 1949, was one of the great singers…
Arts + Culture
The Great Mosque of Djenné: the mud building a whole town replasters every year
The Great Mosque of Djenné in Mali is the largest mud-brick building in the world. Its current structure…
Music
Festival au Désert: the Malian music festival in the Sahara that went into exile
The Festival au Désert, launched in Mali in 2001, brought Tuareg, Malian and international musicians to the dunes…
Arts + Culture
The djembe: how a Mande drum became one of the world’s most popular instruments
The djembe, a goblet-shaped drum from the Mande world of West Africa, is played with bare hands and…
Arts + Culture
The balafon: the West African xylophone and the legendary Sosso Bala
The balafon, a wooden xylophone with gourd resonators, is one of the oldest instruments of the Mande world.…
Arts + Culture
The Timbuktu manuscripts: how librarians smuggled a city’s books away from jihadists
Timbuktu holds hundreds of thousands of manuscripts, some centuries old, on subjects from law and astronomy to medicine.…
Music
Super Rail Band: the Bamako railway hotel band that launched Salif Keita and Mory Kanté
The Rail Band, formed in 1970 at the station hotel in Bamako, mixed Mande griot music with Cuban,…