Kora
/ˈkɔː.rə/noun
A West African stringed instrument resembling a harp and lute, traditionally made with a calabash resonator and a long neck.
Did you know?Kora music has traditionally been performed by jeliw—hereditary oral historians often called griots—whose songs preserve genealogies, epic histories, and political memory.
Etymological Timeline
Precolonial West Africa
Mande languages
kora
“Name for a distinctive West African harp-lute; the deeper word origin is uncertain.”
18th–19th Century
Mandinka
kora
“A 21-string instrument with a calabash resonator, played in Mandinka musical tradition.”
19th Century
French
kora
“A documented name for the West African harp-like instrument during European descriptions of the region.”
20th Century
English
kora
“An English loanword for the West African harp-lute, increasingly used in ethnomusicology and world-music writing.”
Modern English
English
kora
“A West African string instrument associated especially with jeli or griot performance and oral historical storytelling.”