Malian musician Toumani Diabaté, nicknamed “king of the kora”, an African musical instrument, died Friday in Bamako at the age of 58 following a short illness, his family announced.

“My dear dad is gone forever,” said his son and artist Sidiki Diabaté on Facebook. He died in a private clinic in the capital Bamako, another member of his family told AFP, without further details.

Toumani Diabaté, born in 1965 in Bamako, comes from a family of griots, guardians of traditions and holders of oral history. He was renowned for his art of playing the kora, an African stringed instrument.

A shower of tributes

“The immense Toumani Diabaté has bowed out. This evening, the kora is orphaned by its Master,” reacted Malian journalist Seydou Sissouma on X.
Senegalese singer Youssou Ndour hailed “a kora virtuoso, an outstanding musical arranger” on X.

Malian diva Oumou Sangaré affirms that “the world of music today loses one of its greatest ambassadors”, on Facebook. For her, more than a kora virtuoso, Toumani Diabaté was “a bridge between our ancestral traditions and modernity, an artist who knew how to carry the voice of Mali to the four corners of the world”.

Malian singer Salif Keita deplored on social networks “the loss (of) the national treasure” of Mali, a country currently facing jihadism and plunged since 2012 into a serious crisis with multiple dimensions.

Toumani Diabaté began playing “from the age of five” in the entourage of his family of griots before joining the Ensemble instrumental du Mali, testifies, on Facebook, the ambassador of Mali to Canada, Fatima Braoulé Meité .He played in the company of great Malian stars including Ballaké Sissoko, another great kora player and Ali Farka Touré, another big name in music from this West African country, she added.