Mali Gallery

Senegal - Griot playing a Kora

Senegal - seated Griot playing a Kora, a 21-stringed harp lute that originated in the Gambia River valley with the Mandinko but is one of the most popular instruments in Senegal. Griots from most Mande groups in Senegal, Gambia, Mali, Guinea, and Guinea Bissau play the kora, which has featured on a number of western recordings in recent years. A Griot is a West African historian, storyteller, praise singer, poet and/or musician. The griot is a repository of oral tradition, and is also often seen as something of a societal leader due to his traditional position as an adviser to royal personages. Date: circa 1910s

© Mary Evans / Grenville Collins Postcard Collection

A Tuareg with his camel - French Colonial Exhibition

A Tuareg with his camel at The Colonial Exhibition at the Garden of Tropical Agriculture at Nogent-sur-Marne, just outside Paris, France. The Tuareg people are a large Berber ethnic confederation. They principally inhabit the Sahara in a vast area stretching from far southwestern Libya to southern Algeria, Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso.
1907

© Mary Evans / Grenville Collins Postcard Collection

West African Tuareg Horse Warriors

West African Tuareg Warriors, in traditional veiled headdresses, all mounted on fine horse and carrying spears and enormous shields. The Tuareg are a Berber nomadic pastoralist people, known as the People of the Veil'. The wearing of the Alasho veil by Tuareg men originates from the belief that such action wards off evil spirits. Date: circa 1910s

© Mary Evans / Grenville Collins Postcard Collection