Bara is een ritme uit Zuid-Mali. Dans van de nobele mensen. Een keer per jaar wordt er een groot feest gehouden in het dorp. De koning zit aan, en de Bara wordt gedanst. Ook bij huwelijken en diverse feesten. Hier een versie van de Bara met twee bastrommels op hun kant, met twee stokken bespeeld, hier aangeduid als kenkeni en sangban.
Lied gehoord tijdens danslessen van Laye Diallo:
‘N ganamo, ’n ganamo, Fantalée, Warafama koumbafo,
Koo tomatingeba, Fama yorodé, Dundunbara songa yé
Lied Segu Tonjon op CD Segu Blue van Basekou Kouyate and Ngoni Ba:
N’ganamo, N’ganamo, fandan de manafa ma koumafo
Koo doumatingjeba make bo-o ke woro koumba kele zongo ye
N’ganamo, N’ganamo, fantale manafama koumafo
Koo doumatjingeba make bo-o ke woro koumba kele zonge ye
Dit lied is mooi te spelen op de pentatonische balafoon.
In het CD boekje staat: Da Monzon Diarra (ruled from 1808 – 1827) was one of the most power full and famous of the Bamana rulers (faama) remembered and admired by the griots for his generosity and his fearless slave army (tonjon), who had their own strange, grotesque dances with jerky movements. There are several well known versions of this song, otherwise known as Da Monzon. The song says: “If a poor person talks about Da Monzon he’ll sell that person for the price of one kola nut. Da Monzons children are not like any others. An orphan overhears always the chatting of parents; a woman with no husband allways overhears the chatting of a woman with her husband; a man with no wife always overhears the conversation of a man and his wife. Da Monzons soldiers do no good. They wait untill the men of a village are off fighting, then go in and sleep with their wives. The tonjon eat salted dogs meat (a meat forbidden to Muslims). If you put fresh peanuts in the pot, and you ask a leper to pull them out with his fingerless hand, you mocking him”.