Ballaké’s kora
Today, February 4, 2020, one of Africa’s most outstanding performers, the exceptional kora player from Mali, Ballaké Sissoko has just had his cherished, custom-made kora completely destroyed by USA Customs, without any justification.
Ballaké is a highly acclaimed, distinguished performer who travels around the world with his kora for concerts at top venues. His reputation is impeccable as both artist and human being. He has no criminal record. He is just a brilliant musician, a pacifist, a kind and gentle person, a magnificent and creative performer who manages to give African tradition a contemporary voice with total integrity.
The kora is a fragile, hand-crafted instrument, and Ballaké’s kora is tailor- made to his own specifications. It is an intrinsic part of his very special sound. Would US customs have dared to dismantle a Stradivarius? In its own way that is what has just happened to Ballaké. The neck of the kora has been removed. The strings, bridge and entire, delicate and complex sound system of amplification have been taken apart. The kora is in pieces. Even if all the components that have been dissembled were intact, it takes weeks before a kora of this calibre can return to its previous state of resonance. These kinds of custom-made koras are simply impossible to replace. They are certainly not available in shops.
Ballaké had just finished a two-week successful tour of the USA (LA, Berkeley, Miami, Chicago and NY) with his group 3MA, an innovative and unique trio that brings together string instruments from Mali, Morocco and Madagascar. Ballaké boarded his Air France plane to Paris on his way home from their final concert in New York. He checked in his kora, in its hard case, with its state-of-the-art amplification system, specially designed by sound engineer Julian Cooper.
It was a night flight arriving in Paris the next morning – today, Feb 4. At the airport, Ballaké picked up his kora case, went back to his flat and slept. But when he woke up and opened the kora case, he was shocked and dismayed to find his kora in many pieces, with only a note from US customs – in Spanish, with the unfortunate motto: “Intelligent security saves time”.
–Lucy Durán
The TSA said they didn’t do it. The Guardian reports:
The TSA denied opening the instrument case. “It is most unfortunate that Mr Sissoko’s instrument was damaged in transport. However, after a thorough review of the claim, it was determined that TSA did not open the instrument case because it did not trigger an alarm when it was screened for possible explosives,” a TSA spokesperson told the Guardian in an email.
I don’t think I believe them.
A Stradda what? Could be some new kind of dope. Best bust it open.
Well, Warsaw Pact forces once shot a Stradivarius cello, in a Bond film:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QZuOQZ1HC4
Beautiful. Just beautiful. What a tragedy. What ignorant humans would do that.
I believe it, that they did it. I once had some of my books messed up when coming back from an FFRF convention. Nothing irreplaceable (other than they had been signed by authors I won’t likely meet again), but it was still enough to make me angry.
This is…god, what have we become?
I think perhaps TSA didn’t do it, and it was US Customs officers who did.
What an outrage. I have a couple CDs with Ballaké Sissoko, one of them joint with Toumani Diabaté, another kora player. I play them often; it is wonderful music to listen to when I want to relax. There is so much great music coming out of Mali.