Bouba Sacko was a
Malian contemporary guitarist.
Biography
When Sacko started playing guitar in the 1960s, the concept of "artist guitarist" barely existed. Only
griot
A griot (; ; Manding: jali or jeli (in N'Ko: , ''djeli'' or ''djéli'' in French spelling); Serer: kevel or kewel / okawul; Wolof: gewel) is a West African historian, storyteller, praise singer, poet, and/or musician.
The griot is a repos ...
artists must sing, dance or play guitariste in Mali. He wasn't a griot, but he changed this rule. He was one of the first nobles to play guitar. The famed praise musicians of
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Maurit ...
's
Mande Mande may refer to:
* Mandé peoples of western Africa
* Mande languages
* Manding, a term covering a subgroup of Mande peoples, and sometimes used for one of them, Mandinka
* Garo people of northeastern India and northern Bangladesh
* Mande River ...
people mostly worked with the
Kora (21-string harp),
Ngoni (spike lute) and wooden-slatted
Balafon
The balafon is a gourd-resonated xylophone, a type of struck idiophone. It is closely associated with the neighbouring Mandé, Senoufo and Gur peoples of West Africa, particularly the Guinean branch of the Mandinka ethnic group, but is now ...
. Bouba's father, Ibrahim Sacko, was the director of the state-sponsored Instrumental Ensemble of Mali, so the traditional repertoire and lore of Mande griot heritage surrounded him from the start. Either way, Sacko stuck with the guitar, developing a powerful capacity to evoke traditional instruments using his axe. He died on December 26, 2011.
References
External links
The Official Blog of Afropop Worldwide: Remembering Bouba Sacko
2011 deaths
Year of birth missing
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