The African Roots of the New World Banjo - 01.12.14
Daniel Laemouahuma Jatta is a Jola scholar and musician from Mandinary, Gambia, who pioneered the research and documentation of the akonting, a Jola folk lute, as well as the related Manjago folk lute, the buchundu, in the mid-1980s. Prior to Jatta's work, these instruments were largely unknown outside the rural villages of the Senegambia region of West Africa.
Jatta has done three decades of research on the relationship between the akontingand the banjo of the American south, and has presented his findings at major congresses in Africa, Europe and the USA. With Dr Lucy Duran (Lecturer in African Music) and Dr Toby Green (Lecturer in Lusophone African History and Culture, KCL) Daniel will discuss his research and give a demonstration of the akonting.
All welcome. To register, email cas@soas.ac.uk
Part of the Africa Seminar series
