Guinea bissau biography of rory

Born in Bafatá, Guinea Bissau, Sambala Kanuté is descended from a family of djidius (traditional storytellers) and has earned himself the sobriquet Lifante Garandi — or Big Elephant.

He began singing at the age of 6 with his parents; his father, Mamadou Kanuté, and his mother, Hadja Massa Sow, are griots of great renown in West Africa.

By the time he was 8, Sambala had learnt to play the balafon and guitar, and by the age of 10 he was being asked to perform at family ceremonies.

In 1982, he got together with his sister Fatou and brothers Djali Bakar and Baba Kanuté and formed the group Kanuté Kunda (Kanuté Family).

National success quickly followed, and Sambala and Kanuté Kunda became ambassadors for Guiné-Bissau at music festivals in North Korea and China in 1983, and in Moscow in 1984.

In 1988 Sambala recorded Só Festa, his signature song that to this day gets audiences on their feet.

It is one of the emblematic songs of Guinea