Kumba Kuyateh is one of the few Gambian singers, who strongly believe that higher learning can play an important role in an entertainer’s career. In this interview, she tells us more about herself, her family, education, and current projects:

What’s On-Gambia: Tell us briefly about yourself?

Kumba: My name is Kumba Kuyateh. A daughter to Baturu Suso ; a griot and singer from Basse Sotuma Sere and Jali Kemo Kuyateh; a renowned historian, story teller and Kora player from Badibu Saba.

I was born in The Gambia and brought up in Senegal in a town called Mbour. My Dad worked for the Gambia Radio and Television services for 20 years and he was very famous for his weekly radio show called “Nyo Yamaro”, meaning “Advising Each Other”.

Are you the only Mandinka female griot with university education?

(Laughs)I can’t really tell if I am the only one since I did not do any research about that. I come from a very large family (West African extended family). I have 28 siblings excluding a lot more distant family members. Griots from The Gambia do attain high level education and I know a lot of them, including females, who are doing extremely well in terms of education and other careers besides music.
What motivated you to take education seriously?

I started schooling at the age of 12 (I know that may sound surprising to some people but yeah it’s the truth). When I was a child, at 5, my mum gave me away to my cousin sister who got married to a Senegalese Mandika in Mbour. So I went with her to help her take care of her kids. Cooking, washing clothes, cleaning the house and taking care of kids used to be my daily routine. I would always sit outside the house every morning to look at kids go to school. I used to admire their smartness, neatness and more importantly, when they speak foreign language (French in this case). I would then run in my room and start mimicking French; speaking to myself ( trust me, you don’t want to know what I was saying). Then I would tell myself, “I wish I could go to school and be able to write a letter. If I can do that, then I will be the happiest person in the world”.
Few years later, my cousin’s husband decided to take me to Arabic School (“Dara”) to learn the Quran. I was so excited that finally I am going to school, to learn something new. As a result, I got so interested in learning and I used to memorize all my verses (“Suras”) on time. My teacher (Oustash) at that time saw the potential in me. He then convinced my cousin’s husband to also take me to French school which he did. So I learnt French for three years after which my cousin’s husband passed away and we had to go back to The Gambia.
In The Gambia, I found that all my other siblings where going to English school. My mum had wanted me to continue with French but at that time, the French school in Gambia was not very effective (this was in 1996). So my mum took me to English school and luckily for me, I continued with third grade. From third grade, I proceeded to fourth grade and because I did so well in school, I had to jump grade five to go to grade six (my teachers believed I could pass the common entrance exams). I passed the exams with a score of 313 and got enrollment into the best class (A Class) at Saint Augustine’s Junior Secondary School (commonly known as Pa Joof) from Muhammedan Primary School. From there, I got enrollment into the best class (Science class) at Gambia Senior Secondary School after having Aggregate 12.

I got admission into the University of The Gambia to study Computer Science. I graduated in 2011 and gained scholarship to study International MBA in Taiwan and I will be graduating this June 7th inshallah.

Coming from a middle class family, I grew up seeing how my family had struggled to make ends meet and to make sure that we, their children, never go hungry and or beg in the streets. So I promised myself that I will grew up as an independent woman who will take care of not only myself and my family, but also be able to give back to my society and my country.

I was school prefect throughout my school life. I was also the head girl at my junior school time. I became the best female French, Agriculture and Science student at my junior school. Best Female Science, French and Agriculture student in my Senior Secondary School.

When did you start learning music?

I did not learn music; I was born in music (laughs). I come from a family of griots. These are people who are known to be traditional singers, historians and story tellers. In order words, they are the equivalence of modern day journalists, TVs, radios, and internet etc during the ancient Mali Empire.

I grew up hearing singing and music almost every day. I really never took singing as a profession. I spent my entire childhood life in education. My interest in music started in 2007. This was the time when I just lost my dad and also got enrolled into University.

It all began when I participated in the first Miss July 22 Scholarship Pageant in 2007/2008. This pageant gave me popularity and it was during this time that I discovered my talent in music. I got so much encouragement from good people as well. I decided to do music while I was still going to school. It was not an easy tasks but I finally made it with the help of my family, friends and fans. 

Tell us about your debut album?
My first Album called “Banku Dokuwo”, meaning “Nation Development”, was released in 2011, shortly after I formed my band, Kaira Band.

The album is calling on Gambians from all over the world and inside the country to love themselves and love their country. When you love something, you give it all you have. So in the song, I am saying that each and every Gambian, no matter where you are, should always remember that Gambia will not move forward without their inputs. Other nations were developed by the people of that nation. We the Gambians should also do the same.

Do female griots play any traditional instrument?

Now, Yes!! I play the Balafong; though I am not an expert. My cousin sister, Sona Jorbateh is the first female professional kora player based in the UK. She is half Gambian. In traditional griot family system, men used to play the instruments. Women were discouraged from playing the instruments because it was believed that if they played the kora, for example, that will stop them from having male kids (you know Africans and their many superstitions). But eventually, people realized that was not true.
You just started a new project, Promoting Sewruba in Modern Mandinka Music. What is it all about and what are you hoping to accomplish?

If you listen to every music in this world, almost all music uses similar melody instruments. The only way you and I can differentiate them is through the rhythm. Senegalese music can be identified through “Mbalax”, Arabic music can be identified through their Arabic rhythm, hip hop, reggae and so on. But when it comes to The Gambia, you can only tell this music is from The Gambia when you listen to Jaliba Kuyateh (this is when you are not a Gambian). Someone might object to this but they are entitled to their opinions just as I am entitled to mine, but this is the fact.

Senegalese music used to be more of Salsa oriented but Yussour Ndour realized that this was not something that Senegal owned. Salsa is Latin American. Since the wollofs formed the majority in Senegal, Youssour decided to use the Wollof rhythm (Sabar/ Mbalax) and introduced it into Senegalese music that we all enjoy today.

In The Gambia, Mandinkas form the majority both within and outside the country. So it is ideal to use the Sewruba drum as an identification of Gambian music.

As an inspiration of the beauty of its rhythm, we want to promote the Sewruba drum by recording a single that showcases the Sewruba drum as the center piece of the song. This will serve as an identification of the Mandinka people's cultural rhythm in the modern global musical arena.

The real motive behind the promotion of Sewruba is to take it out of the cultural ceremonial functions in which it is mostly used and bring it into modern Mandinka music, in order to make it more visible to the world. In doing so, people will be able to uniquely identify modern Mandinka music and quickly relate it to the Mandinka people from The Gambia (the only country where Mandinkas form the majority despite having presence throughout West Africa).

We would like music fans to please support our project. Be part of history making. You can click on this link and click on the green button that says “Back this project” and login with your Facebook account details and follow the rest of the instructions to donate. We only have 18 more days before the project expires. You can also watch the introductory video from there.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1683286944/sewruba-mandika-peoples-cultural-rhythm
Please, define ‘sewruba’ music for us?

The Sewruba is a 3-set of drums that uniquely identifies the Madinka people’s cultural musical rhythm. It has more than three rhythms each with its own intro, outro, dance and song. However, the three most common rhythms are “Musuba Julo”, “Duma Julo” and “Mbarama Sendengo”. Other rhythms are normally played during special occasions like initiation ceremonies, masquerade dance etc.

The Sewruba’s three drums each play different roles during the drumming session. The taller and slimmer drum called “Belengo” leads the session. It does all the intros and all the free styles during the drumming session. It also signals and controls every dancer’s movement. The medium-sized drum called “Bere mentengo” normally serves as a backup drum and always holds the timing of the rhythm. The smaller drum called “Kutiro” serves both as a backup drum and as a base. The “Kutiro” occasionally does free style right in the middle of a dance to signal to dancers that they are either showing the right moves or that they are being respected as an important person dancing.
So it is different from kora music?

Kora is a melody instrument whereas Sewruba is a rhythmical instrument. Both, together with other musical instruments can come together to form a song. Though Kora originates from The Gambia, but to the world, we are sharing this ownership with Mali whereas Sewruba is only unique to the Gambia.

A lot of West African musical instruments have been introduced to the world to represent the Madinka people. But all these instruments belong collectively to the Mandinka (Mandeng) people of West Africa in general. Rhythms help define the differences and locations of a certain subset of this larger group.

Are you married?

Yes, I am married to the best husband in the world, Saihou Jammeh. We got married last year in the UK during the Ramadan.

So your family allowed you to marry a non-griot?

Usually this type of question is asked the other way round. Well, I married my husband because we love each other and we have the same chemistry. Meaning we both believe that all humans are the same and that no one is superior to the other in terms of caste or lineage. Luckily for us, our parents also have the same belief.

Any final words?

I hope they are not my final words (laughs). But I would like to thank my husband for being so helpful especially on this project. A very big thank you goes to Busile Dlamini from the Kingdon of Swaziland whom am working with on this project. I would also like to thank our very instrumental professor- Prof Kenneth Hsu who initiated this whole idea of promoting Sewruba on Kicksarter. I would also like to thank my class mates – Karla Vijil and Elma Ramic for their support. Kudos to my band members who also happen to be my family for the beautiful song in the video.

Last but not the least, thanks to Whats On - Gambia for granting me this interview and I would like to tell my friends and fans that I LOVE YOU ALL. Please help us fund our project.

Good luck with the project!

Thank you and don’t forget to donate us please (laughs).