Amadu Bansang Jobarteh School of Music

The Amadu Bansang Jobarteh School is Gambia’s first school dedicated exclusively to the study of Manding Music, one of West Africa’s oldest surviving musical traditions. The school’s main mission is to promote and cultivate knowledge and expertise in traditional music amongst youngsters in the Gambia. Its teachers offer classes in a wide range of subjects including kora, balafon, singing, dance, and drumming.

The school was informally set up in 2006 by Sanjally Jobarteh, son of the griot Amadu Bansang Jobarteh, who is one of the leading kora players of the Gambia. His knowledge of the old manding tradition and repertoire now serves as a basis for the school’s curriculum surrounding the history of this amazing tradition. The school provides a unique framework for this knowledge to be shared with children from all over the Gambia.