Credited to Gambia. The origin rests on oral tradition. Accounts agree that the kora came from the Mandinka kingdom of Kabu (Kaabu), which covered parts of present-day Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Senegal. The American Musical Instrument Society article places the town of Sanimentereng, where Jali Mady Wuleng is said to have brought the kora out, in present-day Gambia, and Wikipedia states the instrument was first found in the Gambia; other accounts speak only of Kabu or the wider Senegambian region. Some players claim a far older origin.
How it began
Many kora players, though not all, agree that Jali Mady Wuleng was the first to construct and play the instrument, and that he brought it out in Sanimentereng, a town in the kingdom of Kabu that lies in present-day Gambia. A popular story says he went into a cave in search of his runaway bride and came out with the kora. Genealogies given by the player Sidiki Diabate trace seven generations back to Wuleng, which dates the instrument to the 18th century. The first written reference was published in 1799 by the Scottish explorer Mungo Park, who traveled inland from the mouth of the Gambia River and listed the korro, a large harp with eighteen strings.
Before it existed
The kora resembles older harps with calabash resonators from the same region and is thought to have developed from them. These include the donsongoni, the hunters' harp of Wasulu, and the simbin, the Maninka hunter's harp of southwest Mali, which are smaller and have seven or eight strings. The most likely direct ancestor is the soron, a harp of seventeen to eighteen strings from upper Guinea, close to the Kabu region, which has almost disappeared.
How it works
The kora stands about five feet tall. A long neck carries 21 strings that run from an iron ring at the base, through notches on either side of an upright wooden bridge, to tuning rings of braided leather called konso on the neck. The bridge stands on a cowhide soundboard stretched over a large half calabash and held with metal tacks. The player plucks, brushes and strums with thumbs and index fingers, eleven strings for the left hand and ten for the right, producing interlocking lines.
How it spread
Kora players traditionally come from jali families, hereditary musicians and oral historians of the Mandinka, and the instrument is played in Gambia, Senegal, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and Mali. During the 19th century it appeared in European drawings, museum collections and photographs. The Gambian player Foday Musa Suso moved to the United States in 1977 and introduced the kora to Herbie Hancock and Philip Glass, and later players took amplified koras into popular music and jazz festivals.
What lasted
Until about 1950 the kora was built almost entirely from natural materials: calabash, rosewood, antelope skin for the soundboard and strings, and iron. From 1950 nylon fishing line began to replace hide strings. Beginning in 1963 monks at Keur Moussa Abbey in Senegal fitted wooden tuning pegs in place of the leather rings, and guitar machine heads followed. The metal rattle once attached to the bridge had largely disappeared by the mid 1980s.
Where it stands today
The kora is played on international stages by musicians from Gambia, Mali, Senegal and Guinea, and many professional instruments carry pickups. Many players still prefer leather tuning rings to pegs or machine heads because of weight and sound. An electric instrument modeled on it, the gravikord, and a 21-string version called the gravi-kora were developed in the United States in the late 20th century by Robert Grawi.
