[korman]

Mamadou Camara aka "Mansa Camio" is a djembefola from Baro, Republic of Guinea. He was born in 1954 as second son in blacksmith's family in Baro, a village/town located in between Kouroussa and Kankan. He was drumming already in the childhood, alongside learning the craft of blacksmith. In 1973 his father sent him to Bamako to further learn the craft, and he lived there for four years, continuing to drum and learning the Bamako style. In 1977 he traveled to Abidjan, where he continued drumming, despite wishes of his family.

However, unlike many other djembefolas, he chose to return to Baro, and took on responsibility for organizing the festivals, including the big annual Dalahmon (pond) festival. He started teaching foreigners in the 1980's, and in the 1990's he recorded the first albums and started to regularly visit Europe to give drumming workshops, mainly in Germany.

His website (German only)
http://www.mansacamio.de/

Website of Maarten Schepers seems to contain the fullest discography
http://www.djembe-books.com/discography-page-3/

He has also co-authored (with Niels Fleurke) the book "Ritmes uit Baro" (dutch only)
https://dununba.nl/djembelesboek-ritmes-uit-baro/
one of the best instructional materials on traditional Upper-Guinean drumming.

[korman]

Mansa Camio is, perhaps, best known online for the short film "Foli" by Thomas Roebers

also this one

[korman]

[the kid]

[the kid]

[the kid]

Plenty of Mansa clips on here.

www.youtube.com/user/lelass57/videos

There was a good performance on youtube from the Afrikafestival Hermte, but it was removed since.

It can be found on youku.com if anyone wants to see that

search Afrikafestival Hertme - Mansa Camio or use this link.

http://so.youku.com/search_video/q_Afri ... _search~10

[Dugafola]

inibaara kid.

i got to kick it with Mansa in Baro over the winter. he's the real big boss out there. they got a young guy in sofoli now....maybe 16-17 years old. he's only been playing jenbe for a few years. i was told that it's Camio's nephew...anyway, he's really really good at the Baro style of jenbe playing. very clean and powerful.

[the kid]

It was a good trawl.

It's surprising and great there is so much of Mansa's material on the tube now. A lot to watch and listen to.