Rendez-vous with Lucas Keen for an appointment to meet the little boat shaped lute played across the West African Sahel since the time of Mansa Musa.

 

Hear the story of the djeli n’goni, get the job description for a griot, and learn where this iconic instrument which is the ancestor of the American banjo is headed! With music from Rokia Traoré, Djenba Seck, Baaba Maal and Mansour Seck, and Bassekou Kouyate.