Massa Dembele is a songwriter, griot, percussionist and master of the kamele n’goni, a West African harp. Nine years ago, he left Burkina Faso to find an international audience for his music. His journey took him to Ghana, among other places, where he recorded his debut album for the Canadian label Izniz. Today he lives in Hamburg and Konstanz. Massa grew up in the provincial capital of Nouna in western Burkina Faso. He comes from a family of griots. ‘The griots have many social and cultural roles; they spread news, tell stories, settle disputes – and they also provide entertainment,’ says Massa.
He has been making music from an early age. ‘As a child, I used to organise percussion sessions with my siblings and cousins in the afternoons – we played on tomato cans because we had nothing else.’ His uncle taught him to play the djembe and balafon. As a teenager, he played traditional music at christenings and weddings. Later, he took up the kamele n’goni, the West African ‘harp of youth’ invented in Mali and Burkina Faso in the 1960s. He sings in Bambara or Dioula, as the language is called in Burkina Faso.