Keita Blogs!

Bamana Kote is a type of theater that is popular among the Bamana people tribe in Mali. The Bamana people are found specifically in the region of Beledougou which is in French speaking Mali. Kote is a type of satirical and moralistic brand of theater which is put on in the village by the young men of the village. Some of the characters that you usually see in these performances are as follows: A woman who loses her vagina in the river, a woman who beats her husband, the man with an extremely long penis, a sorceress who eats her children and many more. The Kote is usually led by the son and daughter of the village chief. While it’s usually the young men who are actors in the Kote, it’s still a community event. Everyone tries to help out in one way or another. The boys who aren’t old enough to perform are usually running around the village obtaining supplies for the actors costumes. The girls sit next to the drummers in order to sing loud and clearly enough. The old men stand...

The Griot The griot is one of the most important figures in West African tradition.  Originating in the 13th century Mande empire, griots are interdisciplinary storytellers and collective spokespeople for their village.  They are also community historians, cultural critics, and indigenous artists. Balla Fasséké is considered the founder of the Kouyaté line of griots that exists to this day.  He advised Sundiata Kieta, the founder of the Mali empire.   Today, griots keep Malian history alive through oral storytelling; an ancient art utilized across many West African cultures. They use instruments like the ngoni, the kora, or the balafon to tell these stories. Both men and women can be griots, and their versatility lends them universal admiration.   Kora Balafon Griot Dance The Griot dance like most of the ones learned in class is very grounded. It involves a wide plié where the head is dropped and the torso is bent over. The rhyth...

Salif Keita struggled to balance many tensions throughout his musical journey, including state sponsorship of music, caste identity, and appearance. In this blog post we are going to try to give an overview of these obstacles, of the ways he overcame them, and on the compromises he made. Nobility and Music Salif Keita was born in 1949 in Badugu Djoliba, a small village near the Niger river. Despite its size, the village was open to a lot of modernizing influences: there was a school, a health center, a weekly open air market with merchant from the capital, and in 1960 it was selected as a model city and rebuilt with modern style. Salif was the son of of one of the most prominent members of the Keita family in his village and therefore was considered part of the noble cast despite his family not being particularly wealthy.  His family was a historically family of hunters and warriors which meant that some of his first musical influences were traditional hunters s...

Koteba is a form of theater that originates from the Bamanan ethnic group, which is the largest ethnic group in Mali. The Bamanan ethnic group is part of the larger Mande family of ethnic groups, and also reside in Burkina Faso, Senegal, and Niger. The Koteba functions to “maintain and reinforce the cohesion among the community by establishing organizational, artistic, spiritual, physical and moral values” (Sadasissoko 11), and serves to establish and support the culture of the entire Bamanan ethnic group. It allows for creative expression and communication, while establishing and strengthening social relationships between genders, generations, families, clans, groups, and individuals. Koteba has led to the origination of songs and dances from a variety of sources. As social relations have evolved within the community, Koteba has served to reinforce these relations that serve as to structure society through establishing and reinforcing shared customs, traditions, and principl...

Salif Keita struggled to balance many tensions throughout his musical journey, including state sponsorship of music, caste identity, and appearance. His albinism led to social exclusion throughout his life. His noble caste made singing, especially singing songs of praise, fasa , an unacceptable career for him. Yet he fearlessly pursued a career in music and became known as the "Golden Voice of Africa." During the period after Mali’s independence in 1960, the state exercised a large degree of control over Malian music. The state sponsored musical groups, individual artists, and venues. There was a national orchestra, a national radio, and even state-sponsored discotheques.  Through this system, the government exerted a large degree of control over music.   Salif Keita gained the government’s support, which allowed him to rise in prominence. His music was played on the radio and as he became more popular, military and state officials and merchants began to give him...

The Keita family has had a long-standing political influence in Mali for many centuries. In our presentation, we discuss the life of Sunjata and Salif Keita. Here are other examples of famous Keita! Modibo Keïta was the first president of Mali and the Prime Minister of the Mali Federation. He fought for independence of the French Sudan, now Mali. He was known for strongly adhering to the ideas of African socialism, implementing socialist policies during the first eight years of Malian independence. He also maintained close ties with communist countries and was vocal about his opposition to colonialism. Mamady Keita is a master drummer who founded and serves as the President of the Tam Tam Mandigue school of drumming. He specializes in the djembe (known as a djembefola, or djembe player) and is known as the djembe ambassador of the world. He is also a direct descendant of Sundiata Keita! https://www.ttmda.com/mamady-keita Untitled Seydou Keita was a famous...