Farewell to Toumani Diabaté. He was 58 years old

Defender of a musical tradition and standard-bearer of Malian music, nicknamed the “king of the kora”, Toumani Diabaté died in Bamako on Friday, July 19, at the age of 58, following a devastating disease; his family announced on social networks. “My dear father is gone forever,” announced his son Sidiki Diabaté, himself a musician who took up the torch of the griot-es, guardians of tradition and oral history.

Toumani Diabaté who had contributed to the cultural influence of his country, collaborating among others with Damon Albarn and Ballake Sissokowas one of the most important players of the kora, a string instrument typical of African tradition built with a body made from half a pumpkin, covered with animal skin, on which is inserted a long neck with strings originally made of animal skin (today nylon is also used). The sound is similar to that of a harp.

In an interview given to the French magazine “Les Inrockuptibles” in 1998 for the release of his album “New Ancient Strings”, in collaboration with the other great name of the kora, Ballake SissokoToumani Diabaté had stated: “The role of a griot (in European culture he could be a singer, a storyteller, a minstrel) is to create harmony between individuals, communities or peoples. He has become a social regulator who uses his artistic attributes as a means to dispense wisdom.”

At an international level he has collaborated with many artists, including Bjork in 2008 and Damon Albarn in 2002. His latest solo album ”Toumani, Family & Friends”, released in 2022, was recorded with numerous West African musicians, including his son Sidiki Diabaté, Fatoumata Diawara and Tiken Jah Fakoly.

The world of African music paid tribute to her on social networks. The Malian diva Oumou Sangare declared that “the world of music has lost one of its greatest ambassadors today”, describing him as “a bridge between our ancestral traditions and modernity, an artist who brought the voice of Mali to the four corners of the world”. The Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour hailed him as “a kora virtuoso and an exceptional musical arranger”, while the Malian Salif Keita he spoke of the “loss of a national treasure.”