Berklee’s Africana Studies Department Hosts Gambian Musician Dr. Sona Jobarteh as Visiting Scholar

Berklee’s Africana Studies Department hosts Gambian musician and educator Dr. Sona Jobarteh '23H, who received an honorary degree from the college in 2023, as a visiting scholar this fall.

"Dr. Jobarteh is a global influencer and visionary educator," said Emmett G. Price III, founding dean of the Africana Studies Division. "Beyond a master musician and renowned griot, she is a fierce humanitarian and effective social activist. It is our tremendous honor to receive Dr. Jobarteh as a colleague and partner in reflecting the brilliance, resilience, and hope of Black creative expression with a focus on the people and cultures of Africa, both historical and contemporary."

Throughout the semester, Jobarteh will co-teach the course Women in Africa and African Diasporic Cultures, which challenges stereotypical constructions of Africa and African diasporic women (or ADW) in mainstream media. The class is taught by Professor Aminah Pilgrim, an author, community organizer, and award-winning educator, who was the first faculty member hired to the Africana Studies Department in 2022 to teach African American Women's History and Hip-Hop History and Context.

As a co-instructor, Jobarteh challenges the often innate Eurocentric approach to the study of Africa, and its history and traditions. Her intention is to expose students to a different perspective in the quest to better understand both the people and the culture. Jobarteh's teaching methods will ask students to question, confront, and break down numerous layers of preconceived concepts that they may not even know that they carry. 

"We are honored to have Dr. Sona Jobarteh join us this fall,” says Dr. Michael C. Mason, chair of the department. “Dr. Jobarteh is an excellent scholar and is strong in her philosophical approach to academics. In leading the Gambia Academy, she highly values gender equality, experiential learning, and the holistic development of students. We know that Dr. Jobarteh will also share these values with our students here at Berklee."

“I’m very excited to be part of the Africana Studies Department this academic year, and to be contributing to its incredibly important work of bringing the cultural and historical context of African/Black music to the fore,” says Jobarteh.

The musician was born into one of the five principal griot families in West Africa, a hereditary tradition that dates back over 700 years to the Mali Empire. Jobarteh’s lineage includes renowned kora masters Amadu Bansang Jobarteh, her grandfather, and the legendary Malian musician Toumani Diabaté, her cousin. Jobarteh was originally introduced to the instrument at the age of 4 by her elder brother Tunde Jegede. She went on to study under her father, breaking an ancient, male-dominated tradition that had been exclusively handed down from father to son for the past seven centuries. 

She is the first woman within this ancient tradition to master the kora, a 21-string instrument from the Mandeng regions, where she was recognized for her boundary-breaking role in Gambian music as well as for her work as an educator and activist. As a lifelong musician, Jobarteh earned a scholarship to the prestigious Purcell School for Young Musicians and the Royal College of Music in the United Kingdom, where she studied the cello, piano, and harpsichord, as well as composition and scoring.

Jobarteh has toured throughout Europe, China, Africa, India, Australia, and the US, headlining sold-out concerts at the Barbican in London; the Kölner Philharmonie in Cologne, Germany; and La Seine Musicale in Paris. Her music combines the traditional sound of her Gambian heritage with more modern elements of jazz, blues, and R&B/soul. Her 2022 record, Badinyaa Kumoo, displays her skills as an innovative composer and multi-instrumentalist, and includes guest appearances by Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour, Malian kora master Ballaké Sissoko, and American saxophonist Kirk Whalum. 

In addition to her musical career, Jobarteh is a social activist and educator, having founded the Gambia Academy in 2015, a groundbreaking institution for children ages 8 to 18 dedicated to reforming the African education system. The academy teaches a pioneering new academic curriculum that centers uniquely on African core values, traditions, and perspectives. Through her music and African-centered education system, Jobarteh strives to give African culture prominence and relevance in a world where she feels it has been mostly viewed as inferior. In a 2022 interview with CBS's 60 Minutes, Jobarteh discussed how breaking convention as the first female kora master “is a very central and important adaptation that tradition must take in order to be relevant to our new society.”