Jaliba Kuyateh, Gambia's kora maestro and one of the greatest musicians in Africa. Widely referred to as ‘King of the Kora’, Jaliba Kuyateh is an international artiste who has contributed in no small measure to the socio-economic development of The Gambia through his music. The kora star has toured many places in the world selling his unique brand of music that is appreciated by people of different backgrounds. He has produced many albums and composed many songs conveying messages to the people on social issues; and also rendered services free of charge. A former teacher, Jaliba, who said he is about 57 years of age, has also inspired many young Gambians to take up music as a career. Known for his advocacy on various development issues including those affecting children, Kuyateh is also a Unicef Goodwill Ambassador, the first Gambian to hold such a position.

Please read the rest of the interview.

Bt: It is a pleasure to have you as our guest for this edition. Undoubtedly, you are a great musician, but can you tell us who really is Jaliba Kuyateh?

Jaliba: Thank you very much. I am happy to talk to this column, which is widely read. To start with, you already know my name; I am Jaliba Kuyateh a Gambian citizen. I was born and brought up in Niamina Dankunku in the Central River Region of the Gambia. I was born in a griot family and I found my father [Kebba Sunkung Kuyateh] playing the kora instrument and my mother [Bakoto Mbaye] was the back vocalist. Because I was born in a griot family, at a very early age I was introduced to the kora instrument and music in general. It is unfortunate that most of our ages are based on forgery. I think I should be around 57 years. I don’t know whether I am older than that or younger because this clinical aspect of the thing was not happening then.

Bt: We understand that you started music as early as the age of five. Is this true? If so, what can you tell us about those early days of your life?

Jaliba: Yes! Five to six years; my father was using the kora instrument as a form of punishment on me. If I did anything wrong, he confined me to a corner of his room; gave me a tune to master before I was allowed to go out to play with my mates. In that sense, he was introducing me to the instrument and through that I was able to capture the basic skills of the instrument.

Bt: What is your real name, because in the local Mandinka parlance Jaliba means a great griot. Do you have any name other than that?

Jaliba: (Laughs). This is a question that has always been going on and it’s really amazing. I think it’s tormenting to so many people because they want to know a lot about this. But the secret there is according to my father, he knew I was going to be somebody. I think he was told so by fortune-tellers. My father said he had the right to conceal my name even from my mother. I think he whispered this to the man who was doing the ceremony initiation. So he kept this as a secret because he [my father] said he was told that I would be singing in the future and the whole world would know about this and they would hear about me. So he just said ‘Jaliba’ and when I came to know about my own name, I was young then, at age of 7-8 when he just caught hold of me [and took me] to primary school. He told the headmaster that my name is Jaliba. It was entered in the school register and that is the name I have been using to date.

Bt: You said your father was using the kora as a form of punishment on you to enable you master the basic skills of the instrument. How did this help you?

Jaliba: It helped me a great deal because I almost left [playing] the instrument because of my education career. When I was taken to school I was only doing it during my leisure times [during holidays]. Sometimes for two to three months I would not be exposed to the instrument. It has helped me because those basic skills that he thought me were there for quite a long time until when I was in Bakau as an unqualified teacher; I sat for the entrance examinations to become a qualified teacher at the then Yundum College. Then the interest came back to me. When I came back to the instrument I knew where to start and I started with those basic skills. And then I was confining myself in a room practicing everyday. So I went along with the instrument to the college. It was amazing to see a student with that sort of instrument because I think at that time I was the first person.  This was around the 1977-78 academic session, and in 1980 I became a qualified teacher.

Bt: You are also seen as the one who revolutionized the kora in today's generation in the sense that you are able to unite the traditional kora instrument and modern music. How did you accomplish this?

Jaliba: I think Western education helped greatly here because it enabled me to arrange my music coherently and in poetic language too. I started to reveal so many things about the kora that were not known before because kora knowledge was transferred from father to son through apprenticeship. And the first class activities always begin with listening, being able to beat the rhythm on the calabash. So I think Western education helped greatly and this is why I am able to do so many things – arrange things coherently. 

Bt: How many years have you been in active music?

Jaliba: This should be my 25th year in active music.

Bt: You were a teacher at a time when the profession was very enviable compared to now. What actually made you to leave the teaching profession?

Jaliba: Well, I loved teaching because it was inspiring and knowledge gaining too. I loved it, but there came a time especially when I left the college, a crowd of women went to the Education Department requesting for the group to be posted to Brikama and that was how I came to Brikama. Through this I had so many people inviting me at the time and so there came a time I said, if I continue teaching, I won’t be fair to my children because I was doing the best part of my time outside with people. So it came to a time I said [to myself] I better resign. And instead of [remaining] a passive musician I became a full-time musician.

Bt: A few years ago you were appointed a Unicef Goodwill Ambassador, the first Gambian to get such an appointment. How important was this?

Jaliba: It is very important not only to Jaliba but to the whole nation. I understand from information that there is always a big board in the UN center in New York, where all names of goodwill ambassadors and their countries are written down. So I am able to put my country’s name on that board. So that is of great importance and I also think it has placed me very high because each time I travel when I show my certificate; I am always given first class treatment and I am always seen as somebody respectable. Before they [Unicef] nominate anybody, they sort of screen the whole thing and they believe whoever is crowned a goodwill ambassador is an exceptionally good person.

Bt: How many awards have you received so far?

Jaliba:  So many, but I can remember only a few. I was awarded an honorary citizenship of the Republic of Guinea Bissau and a diplomatic passport in the same country by the then president [the Late Nino Vieira]. I am highly respected in Guinea Bissau because even now if I enter that country, and the authorities came to know about it, they will send troops as a form of security and they would stay in my hotel 24 hours before I leave the country. From Bissau, in the midst of hundreds of musicians of Senegal, the First Lady of the Republic of Senegal, Madam Vivian Wade, was able to pick out only Jaliba to crown me as a Goodwill Ambassador for the women folk there. This is because I was doing a lot of things especially in the Cassamance and the women were engaging me a lot. So I became a household name in Senegal.Here at home, I received the MRG Award from President Jammeh, and recently I also have a Gambian diplomatic passport; the News and Report Magazine ‘Man of the year’ 2009 award, and other awards from Gambian associations in different parts of the world, amongst  many others.

Bt: How many albums have you produced since you started your music career and which of them is the best selling?

Jaliba: (laughs) This is a very freaky question. Ready made ones I think I have gone to 14-15 now. That was the time I started with the instruments but before, I cannot remember and each year I was always coming up with 10 songs and I spent almost 10-15 years on that.

Bt: Which particular song do you like best?

Jaliba: I used to love 'Terato' amongst my songs because it is too sentimental and the wordings of the song are too touching. But recently [last release in 2009] the song 'Iteletamunt' [you own me] came up as my favorite. Iteletamunti is widely argued even in my band and quite a number of people now believe that it is the best that I have ever done. Even the brother of Youssou Ndure, Bouba Ndure sat down and marveled at me and said 'definitely you are a singer and this song is just superb. My brother even listens to it every time during his leisure time'.

Bt: Do you have any plans to set up a recording studio that would provide opportunity for not only you, but other Gambian musicians to have their cassettes produced and recorded in the country?

Jaliba: It is better and it is high time we think of this. I have been thinking of this; I am still finding sponsors to set up a place for this because a standard recording studio should cost me about a million dalasis. The duplicating machine is another thing, and this would also go up to a million dalasis.

Bt: The songs you composed contain vital messages that are very useful to the society. What is your inspiration?

Jaliba: Laughs. Well some people have been questioning me whether if I go to bed I do dream of these songs. It’s amazing but I think it has to do with being gifted. Some people are gifted and in each country you have somebody who is there as a role model. My composition, the secret behind it, is that I need to be happy all the time; and I need to be joking with people. If I am in a very good mood, these are the times when things come to me that I should sing about.

Bt: Do you have plans to organize music festivals as many other musicians are doing?

Jaliba: Yes, recently some intellectuals came together and formed a Kora Foundation. I have already formed a Kora Symphony – I called together all the kora players and they welcomed the idea. We are all together now and we are going to do a lot of things. I am sure in the future I will be thinking of showing to the people that it is true the kora belongs to us Gambians. But to make this evident, and to prove it, I think I will be organizing some kora festivals that will attract people from the Diaspora.

Bt: What is your perception of the Gambia's music industry?

Jaliba: I think it is coming up – formerly it was never like this and now we have uncountable musicians. Again the president of the Republic is doing a lot to promote them.

Bt: We have seen a lot of young Gambian musicians coming up in recent times to venture into a field that will be described as very competitive and challenging. What is your advice to them?

Jaliba:  Every successful musician or person for that matter in this world would always sit down and tell you the hardship trends he or she had gone through. So it is a difficult trend and this saying is correct that Rome was never built in a day. I think the sickness that we have here is that musicians want to come up, start one day, and become very big that day. It has to take a trend that would push you to 20 to 30 years or even 40. Think of Michael Jackson, when he was at the age of nine pushing and pulling until he became a world star. So it’s not easy. I have gone through so many hardships and difficulties and it was not just a day or I attended one festival and when people yelled at me, I started thinking I am a world star. That is not it. We have to take our time and when we enter something, we have to be sure that we are on the right track and doing the right thing.

Bt. Do you have constraints?

Jaliba: I have a lot of constraints. Presently I even wrote to several places so that the band [Kumareh Band] can be equipped with instruments. I have constraints of musical instruments, and if I had the opportunity today I would have got my own recording studio and duplicating machines. Sometimes people think Jaliba has no problems but I have a lot of them because compared to other international musicians like Yousour Ndour and  Salifu Keita, they are far richer than the level I am despite we are in the same category. 

Bt: You recently returned from an overseas trip, precisely from the United States of America. How did it go?

Jaliba: I was invited by the Seattle Gambian Association. Our first performance was in New York and we stayed with them for one week. Then on the 4th of July, it is always a big occasion in Atlanta – so the Atlanta Gambian community all came together and people flew from Europe and from other parts of America to join us in Atlanta. That was a very big occasion and I am sure in the future the cassettes would be out. We were even received in limousines from the airport to the hotel. After one week in Atlanta, we moved to Texas, Dallas, and so on. We had successful programmes.

Bt: When is the new album coming out?

Jaliba: Although I have been engaging a lot but I want it. Even the Europeans are trying to draw me from this Koriteh feast but I told them I cannot go out of the Gambia during the Koriteh feast; I have to stay here and play a week or two for Gambians. And after that I think they are snatching me again to travel to Europe before Tobaski. Then I think after Tobaski is the time we are going to think of recording the new album and then launch it around December or January.

Bt: Jaliba we cannot wrap-up this interview without asking you something very unique about yourself. This is the fact that you are probably the only musician who plays kora, sing and dance at the same time while on stage. How do you manage to do this?

Jaliba: Laughs. Again a percentage of giftedness comes here. Maybe Gambians are not seeing it but this is the point why so many people do respect me. If Yousour is being interviewed, you ask him who your musician is, he would tell you Jaliba. If Saikouba Bambino is being interviewed, you ask him who do you admire most, he would tell you Jaliba. They think I am the best in Africa. That may not be true but what they are saying is that you [Jaliba] is doing three things together; you are playing very nicely on the instrument, dancing, and singing all coordinating at the same time.

Bt: Which political party in The Gambia do you support?

Jaliba: Laughs. Of course the APRC party. It's the party of the day. That's evident.

Bt: You also have two of your wives as members of the Kumareh Band. What is the motive behind this?

Jaliba: Sometimes I used to move with some other female artistes that are not my wives. So I decided to recruit my own wives since they have the voice.

Bt: How many wives and children do you have?

Jaliba: Well I have five children and three wives.

Bt: How many of your children are into music?

Jaliba: About two of them are trying.

Bt: Well Jaliba we have come to the end of this interview and we want to reiterate our thanks to you for slotting us into your busy schedule.

Jaliba: Thank you too and I am happy.

For comments, suggestions and interest for this column, please contact the columnists on the following: Email hatabfadera@yahoo.com Mob: 9898 416/ 3658213 or assansallah@gmail.com

Mob: 3658204/ 9861235