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I bought that kora in July 1997 to Mamadi Kouyate, a musicology brilliant student and a kora player, 20 years old. He was then the one of a disciple of M. Toumani DiabateToumani Diabate is the son of the legendary korafola Sidiki Diabate. Virtuoso korafolá, Toumani Diabate has much contributed to make known the kora... Read more..

he kora is a hand-crafted cordophon from West Africa. A traditional kora is made of :

a soundtable made of big gourd (calabash) covered by a cowhide or goathide nailed with upholstery tracks. This soundtable is stuck off on the right of its convex part to create the soundhole (kora bunda).

a palissander's hardwood neck (falo) ringed by 21 leather bands or rings (nkonso) used for nailing the strings ;

an iron anchor ring (djoutene) fixed at the top of the neck and the soundtable's base ;

a horizontal hardwood rod (barambando) crossing the soundtable ;

2 vertical hardwood grips (bulu kalamo) crossing the soundtable from part to part ;

a bridgeIf the bridge (Mandinka: bato) is not cannibalised from an older instrument, it is cut to shape from a piece of seasoned rosewood with a thickness of about a quarter of an inch... Read more. (bato) stuck to the soundtable, fixed right at place only by strings pressure and resting on a piece of wood (bato fingingko), pressed against the very cow-skin and sometimes surrounded by a red tissue ;

21 nylon strings (julu) of fishing line (in the past, of twisted leather) linked to the neck by the leather rings and fixed on two parallel rows set on a bridgeIf the bridge (Mandinka: bato) is not cannibalised from an older instrument, it is cut to shape from a piece of seasoned rosewood with a thickness of about a quarter of an inch... Read more. (11 at left, 10 at right), which is perpendicular to the cow-skin soundtable.

A kora player is called korafolá (who is able to make the kora talk) - korafolálu, plural.

Genealogy of famous korafolálu