While this has eroded some of the kora’s more traditional aspects, it has arguably ensured its survival and enduring popularity. Kora players have always drawn on tradition, but each generation has pushed boundaries and challenged norms, changing the instrument’s style and sound over the years. The instrument’s success is in large part due to Toumani Diabate and Ballake Sissoko’s beautiful album Ancient Strings, which helped the kora break down musical borders and span new territories, whilst at the same time remaining rooted in tradition. The kora, the long-necked harp lute of the Mandinka people, is by far the most well known in the West, and since the 1970s its ethereal sound has conquered the global stage. Although there are hundreds of different types of stringed instruments across the continent, they can broadly be divided into into bowed (fiddles), plucked (harps, lutes, zithers, harp-lutes, harp-zithers) and beaten (musical bows, earth-bows) types. While most instruments in Africa serve roles that go beyond simple entertainment, stringed instruments in particular have long played a role in maintaining oral traditions, preserving genealogies, and accompanying religious and ritual ceremonies. The richness of African musical styles is matched only by the continent’s enormous variety of musical instruments.
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