Kora player Jally Kebba Susso on the duties of a griot

Gambian kora player Jally Kebba Susso comes from an ancient family of griots - storytellers, historians and musicians - that date their origin to the 13th Century.

He recently released his debut album, Malaye Warr, with his band Manding Sabu: Jon Speedy - lead guitar (UK), Kyazi Lugangira - guitar and vocal (Tanzania/UK), Bumi Thomas - vocal (Nigeria/UK), Matteo Grassi - bass (Italy) and Jules Weishaupt - drums (France).

"To be a griot you have an obligation to preserve a lineage… We're like 74, 75 generations of kora players," he told David Amanor from the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.

You can see a video of him performing for BBC Africa here. For more African news from the BBC, download the Africa Today podcast.