Papa Susso

Performance by Papa Susso:

CÓMO NACIÓ LA KORA

- tal como la cantara Papa Susso a Bob Holman

Esta historia comienza hace mucho mucho mucho mucho tiempo
Hace tanto que no era un tiempo sino un lugar
Había un hombre
Estaba tan solo
Que la única persona con la que podía hablar era África
Por suerte había un árbol cerca
Por más suerte aún tras ese árbol
Era donde se escondía su compañera
Todo el sol y toda el agua estaban condensadas
En un único bloque diminuto
Que el hombre plantó en la tierra arenosa
Sopló y sopló en aquel lugar
Cada vez que soplaba le parecía escuchar algo
Lo que escuchaba era desde luego su compañera cantando
El hombre ni siquiera sabía lo que era cantar
Porque podía sólo hablar
Aún no podía cantar
Así que soplaba y escuchaba, soplaba escuchaba soplaba escuchaba
Y la planta germinó color verde oscuro
Y empezó a retorcerse y a crecer
Una enredadera buscando aliento
Y estirándose hacia la canción
(Porque estaba hecha de sol y lluvia, ¿recuerdas?)
Así que al final de la enredadera estaba la calabaza
Y el árbol ya no era árbol
Era el clavijero y las manijas
Ahí fue cuando la compañera del hombre Saba Kidane
Hizo su aparición (pero esa es otra historia)
¿Y el aliento y el canto y la enredadera?
Bueno, hay 21 cuerdas, ¿qué te parece?
Y ahora tú dices y qué pasa con el puente y el cuero
Y los anillos que atan las cuerdas al clavijero
Para que puedas afinar la kora
Hey, qué hay de las tachuelas que mantienen
Al cuero tenso sobre la calabaza
Y el agujero resonador
Bueno tienes razón en mencionar todo eso
Ahora estoy tocando kora
La próxima vez te cuento acerca de la vaca

Extraído de aquí, donde se pueden encontrar además otros poemas del mismo autor.

HOW KORA WAS BORN

- as sung by Papa Susso to Bob Holman

This story begins long long long long ago
So long ago that it was a place not a time
There was a man
He was so alone
The only person he could talk to was Africa
Luckily there was a tree nearby
Even more luckily behind that tree
That’s where his partner was hiding
All the sun and all the water were condensed
Into a single tiny block
Which the man planted in the sandy soil
He blew and he blew on that spot
Each time he blew he thought he heard something
What he was hearing was of course his partner singing
The man didn’t even know what singing was
Because he could only talk
He couldn’t sing yet
So he blew and he listened, blew listened blew listened
And the plant pushed out dark green
And began to twist and grow
A vine reaching for the breath
And stretching towards the song
(Because it was made from sun and rain, remember?)
So at the end of the vine that was the calabash
And the tree it was not a tree anymore
It was the neck and handles
That was when the man’s partner Saba Kidane
Came out into the open (but that’s another story)
And the breath and the singing and the vine?
Well, there are 21 strings, what do you think?
And now you say what about the bridge and the cowhide
And the rings that tie the strings to the neck
So you can tune the kora
Hey, what about the thumbtacks that hold
The cowhide taut over the calabash
And the resonator hole
Well you go right on talking about all that
I’m playing kora now
Next time I’ll tell you about the cow

From here.

Alhaji Papa Susso (Sotuma Sere, Gambia, 1947). Es maestro del kora, -arpa-laúd africano de 21 cuerdas-, que le enseñó a tocar su padre, y el cual ejecuta desde los cinco años. Director del Koriya Musa Center para la investigación de la tradición oral. Historiador oral de Gambia, su país natal, desciende de una larga línea de Griots (Poetas historiadores en la tradición oral), del pueblo Mandinka, África Occidental. En ejercicio de su profesión ha sido invitado a diversos campos universitarios de Europa, Asia, Estados Unidos y Canadá, tanto a salones de clase como a importantes salas de concierto, donde ha comunicado la historia de su país y de su pueblo, discutiendo acerca del papel del griot en la cultura del África Occidental y ejecutando las canciones clásicas del repertorio de su estirpe. Músicos itinerantes, los griots transmiten la historia tribal y las genealogías, componiendo canciones conmemorativas y participando en importantes eventos de la tribu. Suele presentarse solo o en compañía de su grupo que incluye canto, danza, balafong, y un segundo kora, ejecutado por su hijo.

Extraído de aquí.

Alhaji Papa Susso (Suntu), master kora player, traditional musician, oral historian, virtuoso and director of the Koriya Musa Center for Research in Oral Tradition, was born on the 29th of September, 1947, in the village of Sotuma Sere in the Upper River Division of The Republic of Gambia, West Africa.

Papa Susso hails from a long line of Griots (traditional oral historians). His father taught him to play the kora when he was five years old.

The kora was invented by the "Susso" family of the Mandinka tribe of the great Manding Empire. It is a 21-stringed harp-lute unique to the western- most part of Africa and is meant to be played only by the Jali (professional musicians, praise singers and oral historians), who were traditionally attached to the royal courts. Their duties included recounting tribal history and genealogy, composing commemorative songs and performing at important tribal events.

Papa, as he is commonly known, attended Bakadaji Primary School from 1963-1960. He passed the common entrance high school examination, which allowed him to enroll as a student at the Armitage High School, Georgetown, The Gambia, from 1960-1965, where he graduated with honours.

Upon finishing high school, Papa Susso was appointed Agricultural Assistant in the Ministry of Agricultural and Natural Resources. He held that position until he received a scholarship to attend Outington University in Suakoko, Liberia, where he received his bachelor of arts degree in business administration in 1969.

On his return to The Gambia, Papa Susso joined the civil service of The Gambia government as a Senior Accountant in the Ministry of Work and Communications. Papa has also served as Financial Attaché and Liaison Officer for The Gambia Embassy in Freetown, Sierra Leone, with concurrent accreditation to the Republic of Liberia, Guinea and The Ivory Coast. Papa Susso later resigned to go back to his traditional role as a kora player so that he could keep his African culture alive. He became the chief kora player of The Gambia National Cultural Troupe under the Ministry of Education and Culture.
In 1974, he resigned and formed his own cultural organization: The Manding Music and Dance Limited. The objectives of this organization include: a) conducting research and carrying out studies into the history, traditions and ethnomusicology of Manding; b) carrying on the business and assisting the performing artists in the presentation of music and folklore of Manding; and, c) reviving, exposing and promoting a better understanding and appreciation of the music culture of the Manding.

Papa Susso is a Muslim by religion. He has traveled quite extensively to East, West and Central Africa, the Middle East, Europe, Asia, Canada and the United States of America, spreading his special message of peace and love.

He has performed for several heads of state and government and the United Nations Organization. Papa Susso has also performed with several symphony orchestras. He is a premier performer in the "American Classic African Portraits" by Hannibal Peterson. He performed at New York City's Carnegie Hall twice, for the Baltimore, Detroit, Kalamazoo, San Antonio, St. Louis and Chicago Symphonies, the Louisiana Philharmonic of New Orleans, and Kazumi Watanabe Opera, Tokyo, Japan.

Papa Susso has also been appointed as Regents' Lecturer in ethnomusicology in 1991 at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The Regents' Lecture and Professorship Program is designed to bring to campus distinguished leaders in the arts, sciences,, business and politics, whose careers have been largely outside the academic area. As Regents' Lecturer in ethnomusicology, Papa Bunka Susso has been participating in discussions with students and faculty and joining in informal talks with interested parties.

From here.