Written by Ambre Montespan - Updated on Jan 28, 2026
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Now an international star, Anglo-Gambian singer and musician Sona Jobarteh has built her career around a traditional instrument from West African cultures: the kora.
The kora of Gambia and Mali
Traditionally reserved for men, the kora is a 21-string musical instrument—part guitar, part harp, part lute, and part lyre—played across West Africa, from Senegal to Niger, including Mali, Burkina Faso, and Benin.
The kora often accompanies the singing of griots—poets, historians, and teachers who recount age-old stories (see here).
It consists of a large half-gourd covered with cowhide, with a sound hole that helps project its resonance, much like a guitar.
A long neck, usually about 4–4.6 ft (1.20–1.40 m), anchors the 21 strings, although the number of strings can vary and reach as many as 32.
Players pluck the strings with their fingers, especially the thumb, index finger, and middle finger.
Introduction to the kora
Before becoming a virtuoso, Sona Jobarteh was introduced to the kora at the age of 3 by the men in her family, all renowned musicians: her brother, her cousin, her grandfather, and her father, whose only daughter she is. A sign of how African societies are evolving, they did not seek to exclude Sona. Instead, they were determined to pass on a musical heritage that had long been handed down from father to son but that, deep down, has no gender. Her father even told her that when someone listens to Sona play the kora, they shouldn’t be able to tell whether it’s a man or a woman playing—they should simply say it’s played with delicacy, tact, and precision.
Interestingly, according to African legend, the kora was first invented by a female spirit (a djinn in Islamic tradition) before being stolen by a griot and passed on to his son.
Music school
Sona Jobarteh is English on her mother’s side. As a young girl, she moved to England and attended music school, where she studied piano and cello. Traditional African instruments weren’t held in high regard there, and Sona almost deliberately failed her exam.
She then returned to Gambia to live with her paternal family and perfected her skills on the kora. Hesitant to perform on stage for fear of rejection, she nevertheless took part in a few concerts and was met with great success. Times had changed and a woman could now play the kora in public.
Sona Jobarteh recorded her first album, sung in the Mandinka language rather than English—a choice rooted in authenticity that, far from holding her back, helped her gain recognition throughout the English-speaking world, from the United States to New Zealand.
In 2015, Sona Jobarteh took her place in the family tradition by founding her own music school, the Gambia Academy, in Kartong, on the coast of Gambia, at the mouth of the Senegal River. The school has 32 students, including her son, who plays the balafon (a type of African xylophone), and her daughter, who plays percussion. In this way, the long line of griots continues.
