Obituary Malamini Jobarteh
On July 31st 2013, the great Gambian kora player and master griot Alhaji Malamani Jobarteh has died.
According to his passport Malamini was born in 1940, but he doubted this date all along. Because his parents died when he was still an infant, he grew up with his grandmother and uncle. As a young man he excelled as a player of the kora, the harp-lute with 21 strings, of West African fame. But compared to other young jalis or griots he learned quite late to play the kora. Malamini started his professional life by working as an apprentice on a collective taxi, as a fisher, as a carpenter. Only later when his grandmother told him about his deceased father Keluntang Jobarteh, who was an outstanding kora player, Malamini too, followed her advice to learn to play the kora. This, he did first with his uncle Jerending Konte, and later with Jerending’s older brother Bai Konte who finally adopted him. First with Bai, afterwards also on his own he travelled through the region in order to see patrons who would host them and for whom they would sing praise songs, educate them about their genealogies, entertain them. They travelled through The Gambia, and southwards to Casamance, Guinea Bissau and Guinea Conakry. He was a famous kora musician by that time. People would recognize him and call out his name in excitement wherever they saw him. Although the pop music style “Yenyengo” the way we know it today was not yet established, Malamini expanded the role of the jali to pop star status, playing not only for rich patrons, but also for the entertainment of the youths. Thus, by the 1970s he was a famous kora-musician in his own right. He had become a true griot, a jali.
In 1977 Malamini joined the Gambian National Troupe and soon travelled to Nigeria, to the Soviet Union, to Britain. In the 1970s and 80s he also went on tour with Bai Konte and his son Dembo together as Konte Family, first to the United States, later on also to Europe. After Bai’s death in 1984 Malamini and Dembo toured Europe repeatedly. Being a curious man he discovered amazing things in the world out there – and he knew how to tell hilarious stories about his adventures. Malamini also extended his role as a griot in representing his country and his Mandinka culture to a growing number of outsiders. He served as the Gambia’s musical ambassador at the International Travel Trade Show ITB in Berlin and he worked regularly as musical director at the Gambian Hotel Boucarabou. Realising the importance of the role of the griot as an intermediary, as a counsellor, as a diplomat in a globalizing world of entangled histories, quick transport, and omnipresent media, Malamini not only mediated within the Mandinka group, or between different ethnic groups in his region, but who also served as an representative of his country’s and even of his continent’s rich culture. Thus, by the 1990s he succeeded in transforming his profession to a new world level. He had become a great griot, a jaliba.
In the last two decades he concentrated on handing down his art to the next generations. He toured the world with his sons Ebraima Tata Dindin and Pa Bobo. As a devout Muslim, he was proud of his religion and made sure that his children would be educated the basics of the al-Qur’an. It is no surprise, then, that he served as the spokesperson of the group of pilgrims with whom he undertook his hajj. In his hometown Brikama, he would speak to large groups of Muslims assembled for Friday’s prayers. He took his responsibilities as a jali very serious, never ceasing to readily serve as mediator in marital or other conflicts. He made it his duty to educate both his family and foreigners in the art and tradition of the jalis by establishing his ''Teramang Traditional Music School'', which drew even more visitors to his compound – students, friends, patrons of his art, travellers, traders, both from Western as well as neighbouring African countries. He was a patient teacher, strict but humorous. His children and other jalis from the next generation who lived in his compound were from early on influenced by this cosmopolitan spirit. Thus, it comes as no surprise that his sons Tata and Pa are among the most famous and successful kora players in the Gambia, who are regularly on tour either in Europe, America, Asia or Australia, that his eldest daughter Siffai lives and performs in New York, that some of his students live as successful kora players in cities such as Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Boston. Thus, he safeguarded, modernised and lived in a seemingly light-hearted way a centuries-old art and tradition. He had become a king among griots, a jalimansa.
Malamini Jobarteh was a uniquely friendly, open-minded, warm, welcoming and wise person. His laughter was irresistible. He will be missed by his wives Yankui Kuyateh, Kolikoli Samba and Futa Jobarteh, his many children, his family, friends, patrons, and students.
Hauke Dorsch
Mainz, Totensonntag, 2013
