Malamini Jobarteh (vocals), Pa Bobo Jobarteh (kora) and Bai Jobarteh (drums) performing Kelefa Ba.

Kelefa Ba is a traditional song about a man called Kelefa Sanneh from a part of the ancient Mande empire that is now in Guinea Bissau. He came to The Gambia to fight in a war in order to prove his status as a warrior prince, and died in the process. More details of the story and the song can be found here.

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This was filmed at Jali Kunda in Brikama, The Gambia in 2006

The stringed instrument is the kora, the 21 stringed African 'harp/lute'. The drums are two djembe and a sabar.

Malamini Jobarteh passed away on 31 July 2013.

Update 20 Oct 2022
Another rendition of the Kelefa story, told by the Gambian griot Dembo Conteh and accompanied Pa Bobo Jorbateh, also filmed at Jali Kunda around the same time, can be found on this YouTube channel at

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Sadly Dembo Conteh passed away a few years ago. In the late 1990s/early 2000s, Andy Kershaw (then of the BBC) travelled with Dembo Conteh up the R Niger to meet the late Ali Farka Toure at his home in Niafunké, ‎Mali. If you can find the broadcast, it is a fascinating journey and recording. It was this that first sparked my interest in West African music.

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