Da Kali: The pledge to the art of the griot

This film, shot on location between 2009 and 2012, follows the children of four celebrated jeli (griot) families in southern Mali as they face the challenges of learning the ancient art of the griot in the 21st century. It is the first time that the process of childhood music learning in Mali has ever been documented.

Just turned twelve, Rokia Kouyaté is determined to learn the lyrical style of her famous grandfather the singer Kasse Mady Diabaté, and performs at noisy wedding parties, and for a popular television competition. Precocious Thierre Diarra at the age of four is already on the path to becoming a virtuoso on the jembe, following in the footsteps of his father Adama. Ten year-old Salif Diabaté, nephew of kora master, Toumani Diabaté, struggles to fit kora lessons into his busy school schedule, but begins to improve dramatically over a school holiday. And seven year-old Saran Kouyaté and her younger sister, the five year-old Ami, are taught songs by their grandmother, the charismatic and fiery Bako Dagnon, considered one of the great master-singers of Mali.  Her ideas about passing on her musical knowledge are rooted in the rural traditions of the remote village where she was born and raised,  Golobladji – where her extended family continue to sing the hauntingly beautiful songs of the countryside.

Da Kali is the first of two Growing into Music films on Mali. It shows how factors such as urban living, globalisation, and the lack of institutional support for music, are impacting on the transmission by Mande jelis of their art across generations. But it also highlights the determination of both elders and children to celebrate their art and keep it alive – only a few months before political upheaval threatened the very existence of music in the country.

A film by Lucy Durán.
Edited by Michele Banal.
2013

Growing into Music. Funded by AHRC - Beyond Text