Sona Jobarteh is an acclaimed musician, composer, and singer who descends from a principal family of west African Jali’s, also known as oral historians and griots. She is best known for gracing the world with melodic sounds from the kora, a 21- stringed African instrument, traditionally played to accompany recitations of history. That she was
born into a family charged with keeping and telling Gambian history helps explain why she is committed to building African institutions that preserve and teach African history and culture.
born into a family charged with keeping and telling Gambian history helps explain why she is committed to building African institutions that preserve and teach African history and culture.
While studying at SOAS University in London, Jobarteh became acutely aware that she was enrolled at one of the world’s premier educational institutions for learning African culture. She recalls asking herself “why should Africans leave Africa to go and study their own culture?” Rather than bemoaning a problematic arrangement, she went to work. In 2015 Jobarteh began the process of building an educational campus devoted to African cultural studies. Located in a remote area of Gambia, the learning center will include an amphitheater, concert hall, and recording studio.
To learn more about Jobarteh’s incredible efforts to preserve African culture as a source of African empowerment, click here.