Toure Kunda are back. Not that they ever really left, but after an international career lasting forty years, they needed to renew their energy. And what better place to do this than in the heart of Casamance, where the incredible saga of the elephant family (Touré Kunda in soninké) took root? Younger generations are not aware that it’s from this region in southern Senegal, between savannah and mangroves, that one day one of the brothers left for France, just like his pedlar-shoemaker ancestor who left Mali for Casamance in search of crocodile skins, necessary for his work.
For Ismaël, who came to Paris in 1975 to try his luck and who took part in West African Cosmos, a combo experimenting with the hybridization of rock and afro sounds, it was to be the classic immigrant pathway of odd jobs, cold and solitude, association networks, themes which would recur later in several songs. Then in 1977 he was joined by Sixu, at that time working for an NGO teaching farmers new agricultural methods. The duo was known in hostels as the “Frères Griots” (Griots Brothers), before becoming a stage performing group with experienced musicians.
Toure Kunda are back. Not that they ever really left, but after an international career lasting forty years, they needed to renew their energy. And what better place to do this than in the heart of Casamance, where the incredible saga of the elephant family (Touré Kunda in soninké) took root? Younger generations are not aware that it’s from this region in southern Senegal, between savannah and mangroves, that one day one of the brothers left for France, just like his pedlar-shoemaker ancestor who left Mali for Casamance in search of crocodile skins, necessary for his work.
For Ismaël, who came to Paris in 1975 to try his luck and who took part in West African Cosmos, a combo experimenting with the hybridization of rock and afro sounds, it was to be the classic immigrant pathway of odd jobs, cold and solitude, association networks, themes which would recur later in several songs. Then in 1977 he was joined by Sixu, at that time working for an NGO teaching farmers new agricultural methods. The duo was known in hostels as the “Frères Griots” (Griots Brothers), before becoming a stage performing group with experienced musicians.