Akonting - The Akonting Today

The Akonting Today

In the mid-1980s, when Gambian Jola scholar/musician Daniel Laemouahuma Jatta first began to research and document his people's folk lute, the akonting, the tradition of making and playing the instrument was relatively unknown outside of the rural Jola villages found throughout Senegambia. Even within these Jola communities, there were very few young people interested in carrying on the akonting tradition. Recognizing this fact, Daniel's father, a traditional akonting player originally from the instrument's birthplace, the Casamance region of Senegal, implored him to take up the akonting and help perpetuate this vital element of their people's cultural heritage.

Today, there is a burgeoning revival of interest in the akonting within its home region of Senegambia. Young akonting players like Bouba Diedhiou, a teenage radio performer from a rural Casamance village is carrying on the traditional style; also, Sana Ndiaye, best known for his work with the Dakar-based hip hop group Gokh-Bi System, is introducing the instrument to broader audiences.

Thanks to the work of Daniel Jatta, as well as the vital efforts of Swedish banjologist/researcher Ulf Jägfors, British banjo historian Nick Bamber, American old-time country musician/scholar Ben Nelson, banjoist/ gourd musical instrument expert/builder Paul Sedgwick, and others, there is growing global awareness of the akonting and its siblings in the large diverse family of West African folk/artisan lutes, which have been hitherto overlooked. These instruments are just now beginning to get the international recognition and attention they deserve as living ancestors of the banjo. Many museums around the world have updated their collections to include the akonting and other members of the West African folk/artisan lute family, while banjo historians and ethnomusicologists have begun to broaden the range of their focus to include these instruments.