Mamadou Sidiki Diabaté

Mamadou Sidiki Diabaté (born September 23, 1982) is a prominent Mandé kora player and jali from Bamako, Mali. He is the 71st generation of kora players in his family, the younger brother of Toumani Diabaté .

This article also contains a brief description of the Mandé Sound and of the Diabaté legacy.

Mamadou Sidiki Diabaté, widely known as “Madou,” was born on September 23, 1982 in Bamako, Mali. He's the youngest son of the late Sidiki Diabaté and Mariam Kouyaté. He is part of the seventy-first generation of kora players in his family. His family has a long heritage in the oral tradition of jalis (sometimes spelled djeli), or griots. “Jali” is the Mandingo word for the repository musician and storyteller of Mande’s ancient oral tradition, transmitting history and culture from generation to generation, from father to son.

“Mandé,” often used to describe Madou and his family, is a broad cultural designation of several ethnic groups in West Africa, including (though not exclusively) the Mandinka, Maninka (or “Malike”), Sarakole, Bambara, and Dyula, residing primarily in Gambia, Senegal, Guinea, Mali, the northern regions of Ivory Coast, and the western regions of Burkina Faso.

The kora, arguably the most complex chordophone in African music, is a 21-stringed bridge-harp from West Africa. Madou, tutored by his father, began playing an eight-stringed kora at the age of three. From ages three to six, Madou accompanied his parents at weddings and baptisms, among other ceremonies. He played his first concert at the age of six at the Centre Culturel Français of Bobodioulasso, Burkina Faso with his father. In 1992, at age of ten, Madou made his first European tour. He continued to accompany his father up until Sidiki’s very last performance in 1996 at the Festival Printemps des Cordes, or the Spring Festival of Strings, in Dakar. Although Madou has largely followed in the steps of his father, his style has been susceptible to new techniques and innovations. Today, he often claims that his older brother, Toumani Diabaté, who is also a distinguished kora player, is his master, helping him to understand the endless potential of the kora.

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