Bambara people

Yeah.

That has lots of similarities to, uh, a West African tale about a god, Dizari of Bambari, something along those lines.

And it was brought up in this book called They Came Before Columbus, which, brilliant read.

Ivan Van Sertima, anybody who hasn't read it.

So the pipeline already had at least three stages.

Local Dogon language, regional contact language, often Bambara or French, then polished academic French on the page.

Each step is a chance for nuance to get shaved off.

Terms that have layered meanings in Dogon ritual might be rendered into a single flat French word.

Most of the famous Dogon astronomy pass through multiple translation steps.

A Dogon priest speaks in one language.

A local interpreter renders it into Bambara or Fulfuldi.

From there, it becomes French notes in a field journal.

Well, first the musical language, of course, is always there.

which might be the most easiest one, but it's, you know, I speak French with Ali, and for Ali, he's from Senegal, so he speaks all of which the people speak in Senegal, but then he's born in the tradition of the Kora player, which is Bambara, so he speaks Bambara, but he's a Mandinka Djeli, Djeli is Creole, so he speaks, it comes from the Malian Empire originally, So, and he speaks a little, as you can hear, he speaks some English, you know, he speaks French, he speaks all of Mandinkajili, and he speaks all of, because he's Senegalese, he speaks French, and we mostly speak in French.

Okay.

And then with Roberto, we speak in English.

Now, if you wanna know how this three-tiered universe got to be, well, it depends on who you ask.

Like, ask the Bambara people in Mali, and they'll tell you that in the beginning, there was just one sound, Yo.

And from that sound, all living things and forms of matter emerged.

Other creation stories explain something important about the way the human world works.

It's heptatonic, so it's not so related to the blues.

The, the, the music in, in the same regions that has a lot more similarities with the blues is, is Bambara music, for example, which is pentatonic and very funky.

[gentle music] [singing] The Wassoulou music from the southern part of Mali leading into Guinea and Ivory Coast.

[upbeat music] [singing] And of course, the north, uh, Songhai music like Ali Farka Touré-

Uh, but, and people, guitar players started figuring out ways to play that music on guitar, but it was not welcome in the traditional setting.

Now, it was seen as, as something foreign and, you know, not, not, not okay to include.

Whereas in, in, in Mali and Mande culture and Bambara culture and others, i- fine, bring it on, you know? It, it just was like another, another color to, to bring into their already very string oriented music.

Pentatonic music, you're, a, you're referring to the pentatonic scale, uh, which is all over, I guess, uh, American, uh, rock and roll, blues, uh-