A jali's reputation carried by radio

The kora player Jali Nyama Suso began a radio career in 1956 and became known nationally for a weekly programme on Radio Gambia. By the mid-1960s he had gained wide recognition, reportedly including patronage from the Gambian president's first wife, an example of griot performance reaching well beyond the courtyards and ceremonies where it was traditionally heard. ^{[accessgambia-jali-nyama-suso]}

Suso's own career points to a broader pattern. After losing a leg at sixteen, his performing life depended more on broadcast and recording than on travel to distant ceremonies, and by the early 1970s he was recording internationally, including a first solo album made while teaching at the University of Washington. Radio had become one route by which a jali's reputation could reach a national, and eventually international, audience without constant physical travel. ^{[accessgambia-jali-nyama-suso]}