Djénéba Diakité - Gnogondeme

A  Wassoulou songbird from the 90's, Djénéba Diakité is hailing from the region of Sikasso.Her village Kanibougoulaye is close to the borders with  Côte d'Ivoire. She spent her childhood between  Wassoulou and Bamako and after school she began studying theater in Koutiala.

After her courses she became interested in music despite the will of her parents, who over time  accepted her decision  by attributing it to fate. Thus Djénéba was driven on the road to music by her husband  Madou Bah Traore.Together they  formed their group "Farafina Lolo' with the highly talented Madou Bah  as the guitarist and arranger . Equipped with a beautiful voice Djénéba was soon on the national level.
Djénéba  was one of the Malian music stars who turned out in the early 90s with the release of her first cassette "dougou dassiri ",a big success in Mali and  soon with Farafina Lolo they performed  throughout Mali and the whole sub-region.

Djénéba Diakité became known in  Abidjan  appealing to the Malian expatriate community  there but also in Burkina Faso, Niger and Benin where was known as a reference wassoulou star from Mali.European tours followed closely ..

A second cassette named Liberia  confirmed her class,but the  album was widely pirated .Still Djénéba was not discouraged and she recorded a third album that was  also  pirated before its official release....

wassoulou life soundtrack

Gnogondeme


with

vocals-Djénéba Diakité

guitars-Madou Bah Traoré
bass:Dramane Traoré

kamélé n'goni-Benogo

djembé-Drissa Bagayogo

backing vocals-Sata Sidibé,Fanta Doumbia

thanks to ngoni for the video