BOUBACAR MOR GUEYE

Kora master of Saint-Louis, griot, music teacher and keeper of the river's stories

The kora was older than the house, older than the street and, Baba Kora liked to say, older than the river. It had been his grandfather's, then his father's, and when Boubacar Gueye was nine years old it was placed in his lap with the words, 'Now it is your turn to be listened to.'

Born in 1950 on the island of Saint-Louis, into a family of griots, he learned the old repertoire at his father's feet: the praise songs, the genealogies, the long epics of the Wolof and Mande kingdoms. He also attended the Lycée Faidherbe, where a French teacher discovered that he could quote Molière and play the kora in the same breath and could not decide which she liked better. In 1975 he began teaching music at the Lycée Charles de Gaulle, and for thirty-five years he introduced generations of Saint-Louisiens to Bach, Bamba and Bambara melodies alike.

He led his own ensemble, Ndar Sound, which began in a courtyard in Guet Ndar and ended, decades later, on stages from Bamako to Brittany. He was a fixture at the Saint-Louis Jazz Festival from its first editions, and the festival honoured him as a living elder in 2013. Every Saturday afternoon for twenty-four years he sat on the quay with a kora in his lap and taught anyone who asked, free of charge.

He married Aminata Diop in 1977, raised four children, and treated his home like a public library of songs. He loved thieboudienne, as any son of Saint-Louis must, the second glass of attaya on the veranda, and being called a teacher more than a star.

Baba Kora died peacefully in September 2023, after a short illness. He leaves his wife, his children, eight grandchildren, and a town that still hums his melodies.

“Now it is your turn to be listened to.”