Language: Chinese
Interviewed by Yaya, Written by Jackie

Bamako, Mali

Gaoussou Sissoko is a jeli (griot) from Diabaté family with a long-lined jeli descendants in Mali and a grandson of old Sidiki Diabaté who played Kora in Sundiata Keita.

Gaoussou Sissoko: Not only women but men were neither permited, except the oldest son who should carry on the family line. The original kora had only one string, when first player handed kora over to his son, the son added one string on it symbolizing the second generation of kora player and then passed it down to his son who added one more string until the 21st generation when the father died before the son was born, this practice stopped. Therefore the kora has 21 strings. If it is a classical kora with braided-leather rings for tuning, mounted from top-to-down along the neck, you will see each string attaches to one ring and , at bottom of the neck, a circle of pins nailed by the kora crafter, a sign for the 22nd string not handed down, family heritage unfulfilled.

Also, long time ago, the strings, made of animal skin, were hard to get. Preventing other children from touching kora will let the strings last longer. If any string broke and you did not have any spare one. You had to ask a hunter to hunt an antelope in the forest which was rarely found, and then, a tanner to process the skin. That was not easy. Now everyone plays it since the strings are made of nylon which are easy to get.

In addition, according to mythical story, kora was transformed from a woman. Anyone who wants to learn kora has to ask the hand of it by giving kola nuts to the teacher introducing him or her to play, the same way as a man asking a woman’s hand for marriage. Since one woman was not allowed to get married to another, that was the reason why women were not allowed to play kora.

The origin of kora: One day a hunter met a woman in a forest while he was hunting. He chased her once he realized that she was a jinn. She ran away and jumped into a cave. The moment she was jumping, the hunter threw a fish net to catch her. The jinn disappeared. The hunter withdrew his net and harvested a kora, which believed to be the incarnation of that female jinn. The hunters were noble who were not supposed to play music and praise. So he gave this kora to a griot.

Since the kora heritage has been stopped. The original kora has evolved; the tuners became metal pegs and the strings changed to nylon. That is why everyone starts to play it.