In Pictures: In Senegal, the kora 鈥榖rings me closer to God鈥�
The kora fundamentally changed the monks鈥� worship. But the monks also transformed the kora, modernizing its tuning pegs and spreading its popularity.
The kora fundamentally changed the monks鈥� worship. But the monks also transformed the kora, modernizing its tuning pegs and spreading its popularity.
Morning sun filters into the monastery church as the melodic twang of two harplike instruments 鈥� known as koras 鈥� fills the air, combining with the voices of two dozen singing monks. The music rises up the white walls and out through the latticework near the roof 鈥� lyrical, looping melodies filled out by warm bass notes.
The kora has been used across centuries by everyone from West Africa鈥檚 pre-colonial singing historians to modern jazz and rock groups today.聽
But the kora was little known in Senegal outside of the minority Mandinka ethnic group before the monks of Keur Moussa Abbey started using it. In the 1960s, when the Roman Catholic Church was modernizing and just after Senegal had shaken off French colonial rule, the monks of Keur Moussa embraced the instrument, morphing their Gregorian chants into songlike prayers accompanied by the kora.
鈥淚t was work 鈥� it didn鈥檛 just happen,鈥� says Brother Marie Firmin Wade, who builds koras. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what has created all the liturgical richness of Keur Moussa. Because Keur Moussa has taken a bit from everywhere.鈥澛�
Congregant H茅l猫ne Ngom, walking out of a recent Sunday mass, says, 鈥淚t鈥檚 an instrument that when you listen to it, it takes you. When I listen to the kora, I rise, divinely. It brings me closer to God.鈥�