53 min
Music
Live at the World Music Festival Chicago
Her set at the twentieth World Music Festival, filmed by the city that runs it.
About the artist
Sona Jobarteh
Gambian kora player, singer and composer (born 1983) from one of the five principal griot families of West Africa, and the first woman from a griot family to become a professional kora player. She is the granddaughter of Amadu Bansang Jobarteh and a cousin of Toumani Diabaté, and runs a school in the Gambia that teaches the griot tradition alongside the ordinary curriculum.
Upcoming events
Meet Sona Jobarteh in person.
Talks, day programmes and retreats currently listed in the Paths Are Many calendar.
Talks & videos
Watch before you attend.
Short introductions and longer conversations, to hear this artist in their own words.
63 min
Music
Kora Music from West Africa
A full concert with her band at the Franz Liszt conservatory in Weimar.
Listen
Recordings from Sona Jobarteh.
Talks, guided meditations and podcast conversations, playing from the platform this artist publishes them on.
Fasiya
Her first album, whose title means heritage: kora, voice and a band, written by her.
Badinyaa Kumoo
Eleven years after Fasiya, twelve songs on kinship and what is owed to it.
Path
The wider context.
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Drum, song and the ones who came before
Traditions of Africa & the Diaspora
Ifá, Candomblé, Haitian Vodou, Santería, Gnawa, zār and mbira: traditions in which drum, song and ceremony bring the spirits and the ancestors near.
Explore the path →