Jali Fily Cissokho

Virtuoso kora player and praise singer (griot), Jali Fily hails from Ziguinchor in the beautiful lush region of Casamance, Southern Senegal.

Fily is a Mandinkan griot. The Mandinka, a social group of approximately 4 million, live in and around Senegal, Mali and the Gambia. The griots are professional hereditary musicians who once advised and entertained the emperors and kings of Mali. These oral historians have for over 4,000 years handed down the knowledge, culture and history of the Mande people.

Griots are seen as spiritual people. Griot, meaning blood (djeli), being the blood that runs through the corporeal body – the essential omniscient part of life – were thought to be all-seeing and all-knowing in the eyes of society. When you ask Fily how he became such an exponent of his music he replies “It’s in my blood.”

Fily has so far released 4 CD albums, the second, ‘Doumajoulo’ involving a number of other Senegalese musicians.

“My aim Is to bring KAIRA (peace) to all through my music.”