« In the very beginning of the seventies, a profane version of the donso n'goni appears. Who was the first to have the idea? History
has retained several names : Alata Broulaye, Fadougou Seydou, Yacouba Koné, Satigué Sidibé. One thing is certain : they are all very young and out to have a good time. On moonlight evenings and in
their village parties, they attempted to use the donso n'goni to get the women dancing, but the hunters accused them of desacralizing an instrument reserved for males and heroic sagas.
So they constructed a similar instrument, but with different chords. All is not without its rough patches. Satigui Sidibé, nineteen
years old at the time, is expelled from the brotherhood of hunters for one year, and then is readmitted. »
That instrument has a low-pitched sound ; by the way, the low keytones are used for the bass line in melody or the song. As it has
been upgraded 6 to 12 strings, the kamalen' koni is the favorite instrument of the Manding youth today, as you can note its first etymology and function : kamalen means “young”.
See singers and multi-instrumentalists like Mangala, ,
Tom Diakite or
Issa Bagayogo for example.
n'koni
Lute of the Manding old musical tradition.
It is the instrument king of the classical Manding music. The n'koni is a melodic instrument coming from the Fulani people, used since antiquity by that ethnic group. In the beginning, it was made
with a single string and was probably created by the shepherds using it for entertainment when they followed the transhumance of their flocks.
“I must add a list of their music instruments, the main one being : the kounting, a kind of three-string guitar ; the
korro, a large eighteen-string harp ; the simbing, a small harp with seven string...”
First seen in West Africa near the end of 18th and middle of 19th century, the kora never ended fascinating people of all world,
since now. That very versatile and modern instrument has been, constantly, modified and adapted since 2 centuries.
Français
« In the very beginning of the seventies, a profane version of the donso n'goni appears. Who was the first to have the idea? History
has retained several names : Alata Broulaye, Fadougou Seydou, Yacouba Koné, Satigué Sidibé. One thing is certain : they are all very young and out to have a good time. On moonlight evenings and in
their village parties, they attempted to use the donso n'goni to get the women dancing, but the hunters accused them of desacralizing an instrument reserved for males and heroic sagas.
