News - Seite 10 - Jobarteh Kunda

Das Kora-Spiel hat sein Leben komplett verändert

Tormenta Jobarteh, the German griot. When Werner Sturm travelled from Munich, Germany to The Gambia in 1987, it was not to savour the sun by the beach or to visit touristy places,camera carrying and enjoying the scramble for mints by kids. It was rather “to answer to a divine call to learn the tradition of the griot,” as he put it. So, he quicklymoved to Buraba village where, for the next five years, he underwent tutelage under a renowned kora master, adopting a typical rural lifestyle devoid of the “greater than you” posture of some “toubabs” in this part of the world. “We played kora at ceremonies in the provinces and i lived squarely by my share of the proceeds,” he reminiscensed last week at the Calypso Beach Bar, Cape Point. He was amazed at the way he was accepted and given a deep sense of belonging by the villagers. Which was why he did not hesitate to change his name to Tormenta Jobarteh. Upon his adoption as a griot, he travelled back to Munich where he had learnt to play drums and percussion and carried on with the “tradition of music and story telling based on love, tolerance and respect of nature,” according to a citation on him.

Das Kora-Spiel hat sein Leben komplett verändert

Begeisterung …

Erste Auftritte — erste Lorbeeren