Description: The kora is a 21 stringed harp in most of its incarnations. The harp shares commonalities in the regions where it is played. However in early West African history, these musiician/bards/story tellsers called "Jhali's" recited their linear histories of their entire, tribes, clans, and the history of their daily lives with the koras.. The kora today remains very popular both in West Africa and in the Western "World music scene" as a world instrument it is starting to transend into many different genre's most noticably the blues (hence fourth the blues is believed to have originated from Africa).

Citation (from Randy Raine Reusch @ asza.com): http://www.asza.com/ikora.shtml - Other West African harp lutes include the 3-4 string bolon (bolombata, bolombato, bulumbata) of Gambia, Guinea and Mali, the 2 string Ivory Coast bororo, the 4-6 string donsonkoni (dunsukoni) of Mali and Guinea, the 6-7 string Ivory Coast ko, the 6-7 string Burkina Faso konchuchun, the 6 string Ivory Coast kori, the 6 string seperewa of Ghana, the 15-20 string seron of Guinea, and the 5-9 string simbing of Gambia and Senegal.

Anatomy: The Kora, consists, of a gourd, a shaft, a metal ring where the strings are attached or tied onto. Then the strings are traditonally tuned using animal hide rings which hold the strings according to the tention of the strings.

Tuning of the kora: The 21-string kora is tuned in a diatonic G-major 7th tuning of sorts.

Citations (online and off line): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kora_%28instrument%29 - Wikipedia's article on the West African Kora, http://www.coraconnections.com/ - Koraconnections.com also view Koraconections.com - tunings page. http://www.asza.com/ikora.shtml