Malian music star Toumani Diabate passed away after a short illness, his family announced over the weekend. Music lovers across the planet paid tribute to a master instrumentalist who helped share Mali's rich traditions with the world.
Diabate, who died on Friday at the age of 58, was considered a virtuoso of African stringed instrument the kora – a "king of kora" in Mali and beyond.
His countrywoman Oumou Sangare, a Grammy Award-winning singer, called Diabate "a bridge between our ancestral traditions and modernity, an artist who managed to bring Mali's voice to the four corners of the world".
Singer-songwriter Salif Keita, also from Mali, lamented the loss of a "national treasure".
Senegal's Youssou N'Dour praised "a virtuoso of the kora, an unmatched musical arranger".
"An ambassador for Mali, an ambassador for Africa has left us," he wrote on social media.
Musical pioneer
Diabate passed away at a private clinic in the capital Bamako, his family announced on Saturday.
"My dear father is gone forever," his son Sidiki Diabate, who is also a musician, posted on Facebook, sharing pictures of crowds of mourners.
"I'm moved because he was a great master," said Senegalese kora player Senny Camara, who credits Diabate as an inspiration for her own career.
"He brought the kora all over the world. He made everyone want to play the kora, including women, who were not supposed to," she told RFI. "He opened doors for us."
Malian musician Ballake Sissoko agreed. "I don't know what to say because he did so much for kora and African music. A monument has just left us."
Guardian of culture
Diabate was born in 1965 to a family of griots – storytellers who are the guardians of Mali's traditions and oral histories.
"A people without culture is a people who have no soul," Diabate once told RFI. "We must defend culture. Mali is the heart of culture in the world. It is very important."
He collaborated with legendary Malian singer Ali Farka Toure as well as Icelandic pop star Björk, British singer Damon Albarn and many others.
"He mixed the kora into all genres of music," said Mali-based music critic Mory Toure. "If today the kora is well known and has become part of different musical genres... we owe it to this man."
Lucy Duran, an ethnomusicologist at the University of London who specialises in Malian music, told RFI she was "amazed by his virtuosity".
"He had a lot of melodies. He was creative, respectful of pre-colonial traditions – almost like classical music, with counterpoint, harmonies, beauty, richness. It was extraordinary, frankly."
