Performance - 28 June 2009
Mamady KEITA was born in 1950 in the middle of the Guinean savannah. Introduced to the djembe from the age of 7, he joined the Ballet National Djoliba of Guinea at 14, quickly becoming the solo drummer and later artistic director. Mamady toured all over the world with Djoliba, appearing at numerous major festivals including, in 1969, the Pan-African Festival of Algiers where he received the gold medal and especially the title of "Africa's greatest drummer". In 1986, he joined the Koteba company in Abidjan directed by Souleymane Koly. In 1989, he created his group SEWA KAN and settled in Belgium. Mamady gave to djembe its letters of nobilities while bringing ist artistic autonomy, proving thus that it is not only one percussion instrument of accompaniment to the service of the song and the dance but also an instrument of creation. Mamady teaches djembe in the whole world (Europe, the USA, Japan, Bresil & Africa) where he has reached a celebrity on the way to become "mythical".
Mamady Keïta died on June 21/ 2021 at Saint-Luc hospital in Brussels as a result of heart failure.