Cheick Hamala Diabate is a West African historian, now living in Washington, DC. A world-recognized master of the ngoni, a Malian traditional instrument, he has successfully fused the traditional rhythms and vocals of his ancestors with the more electric, American sounds he has absorbed over the past decade living in the US. Both of these tracks have Griot teaching messages and are sung in Manding (seems to be a mother language of Bambara) from Mali.