Pioneers of African music in France at the end of the 70s, the Touré Kunda brothers are quite simply one of the key and essential groups of this new multicultural France, which today radiates far beyond music. The story goes that their ancestor, who came from Mali, once settled in Ziguinchor, the capital of Casamance, for the crocodiles that thrive in this region of mangroves and inlets. The ancestor in question was a peddler and shoemaker in search of the skins he needed to ply his trade. While the Touré Kunda have remained peddlers of stories and music in Soninke, Wolof, Mandingue, Dioula and Portuguese Creole, they have adopted an entirely different animal as their emblem: the elephant. And this elephant family ("Touré Kunda" in Soninke) is without doubt the most emblematic group of the world music that emerged in France at the turn of the 1970s and 80s. Without them, it's fair to say that many artists from Africa would never have been able to attract the attention of record companies.
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Pioneers of African music in France at the end of the 70s, the Touré Kunda brothers are quite simply one of the key and essential groups of this new multicultural France, which today radiates far beyond music. The story goes that their ancestor, who came from Mali, once settled in Ziguinchor, the capital of Casamance, for the crocodiles that thrive in this region of mangroves and inlets. The ancestor in question was a peddler and shoemaker in search of the skins he needed to ply his trade. While the Touré Kunda have remained peddlers of stories and music in Soninke, Wolof, Mandingue, Dioula and Portuguese Creole, they have adopted an entirely different animal as their emblem: the elephant. And this elephant family ("Touré Kunda" in Soninke) is without doubt the most emblematic group of the world music that emerged in France at the turn of the 1970s and 80s. Without them, it's fair to say that many artists from Africa would never have been able to attract the attention of record companies.
