DESCRIPTION:
This beautiful song from the Kaso country in Mali tells a beautiful story about the love a hippopotamus felt for a young girl. Were there ever seen two beings more different?
Mali Sajo was a man who was suffering greatly from the shame of a forbidden love affair. He vowed to drown himself in the river, but when he attempted to, he instead turned into a spirit being in the form of a hippopotamus. The people befriended him, but unfortunately, he was attracted to a beautiful woman, and re-transforming himself into the form of a man he would go and visit her. He told her the secret of the transformation, whereupon she betrayed him to the colonial office and arranged to have him shot.

Hippopotamus of Bafoulabe
How hard absence is;
Your absence oppresses me,
Hippopotamus of Korojube...
It is a favourite with many musicians because of its melancholy and lyrical melody. The subject of the song is a lengendary white hippopotamus in the upper-river area in Mali called 'Baa Fula Beng' (literally, 'meeting point of two rivers'). Being of a peaceful nature, the hippopotamus allowed people to approach him; gradually the people from the area grew to love and trust him. One day, however, a European hunter came and shot the hippopotamus, occasioning much grief among the people.
Jali Sainey Jobarteh is an up and coming Manding Jali. He is from the family of the famed kora player, Malamini Jobarteh. He has had quite a number of lessons from Jali Sherrifo Konteh and you can hear this in his playing.
He sometimes plays kora duets with Amadu Jobarteh, a grandson of the famed Amadu Bansang Jobarteh.

This was filmed on 23rd February 2014 in the compound of Katchikally Suso - 'Kally' - one of the widows of Amadu Bansang Jobarteh in Bakau.