Chanya Culture

14/05/2026

Soulful vocals, shimmering kora melodies and complex rhythmic Malian guitar comes to The Tung Auditorium this October for a special collaboration!

Habib Koité and Sura Susso: Manding Melody
Sunday 25 October 2026

Manding Melody features Mali’s redoubtable troubadour and guitarist Habib Koite and the charismatic Gambian kora maestro and singer Sura Susso, presenting their newly recorded intergenerational, cross-cultural project which celebrates the powerful ‘griot’ narratives of traditional Manding folk tales and stories, told through modern musical styles.

A live show you don't want to miss! Tickets on sale now: https://tinyurl.com/cb4xaj2n

Produced by African Night Fever, Manding Melody is on tour throughout England this October. Presented in partnership with Chanya Culture and Africa Oyé.

13/05/2026

Shout out to one of our local venues Welfare Ystradgynlais who programme some wonderful acts! They have this coming up next Monday, one not to miss! We will be there! Support your local venues if you want to keep them!

From Mali, legendary musician and ngoni master Bassekou Kouyate tours the UK for the first time as a duo with his wife, the revered griot singer and exceptional vocalist Amy sacko officiel, whose “voice of spearing urgency, improbable range” has “a power that jolts like electric shocks” - (The Sydney Morning Herald).

Monday 18th May, 7.30pm
🎟 https://thewelfare.co.uk/.../bassekou-kouyate-and-amy-sacko/

20/04/2026

September this is happening and it’s already sold out! if you have your ticket already you’ve got a great line up to look forward to including !

19/04/2026

Another of our upcoming shows organised in partnership with on 25th October at

This is a beautiful collaboration thats been in the making for years, in October and will be touring their new album Manding Melody, more on this to come! If you’re in the Liverpool area get yourselves along to this, one definitely not to miss.

Tickets:

18/04/2026

The photos from this event are beautiful. This is one of the fundraisers I organised at Roundhouse back in 2012 when working at FORWARD UK it was supposed to be a show with Carlou D but he didn’t get his visa in time so last minute I had to change direction and organise something new! with these amazing acts weird mc da rappatainer Atongo Zimba Sura Susso Seye Adelekan (look at you as a youngster Seye), it was such an amazing show, so much talent, so much work!

We are working again with FORWARD on a consultancy basis and can’t wait to share new projects with you!

10/04/2026

Cymraeg Mandinka Connections with and tomorrow at Wanderfal Festival, thanks to . An early start: 5.30pm venue: KCM Church,Falmouth, Cornwall.

23/03/2026

Cymraeg-Mandinka Connections with Sura Susso & Mari Mathias will be at Wanderfal festival on 11th April. The Cornish Bank

Tickets: https://thecornishbank.co.uk/festivals/wanderfal/

23/03/2026

Allen Valleys Folk Festival has sold out for this year, you can catch Sura Susso there this year!

Hello from the beautiful Allen Valleys …

It’s our local sale of festival weekend passes and a limited number of Saturday night ‘dance night’ tickets this morning.

We’ll be at St. Cuthbert’s Church Hall in Allendale between 10:00am and 12:00 noon. Might see you there.

Our online sale starts on Sunday evening. See our website for more details (Link in comments)

Have a great weekend ahead.

Pictured: Our 2026 festival music programme

06/03/2026

Another great show with Sura Susso to look forward to! A lovely September festival in Northumberland Allen Valleys Folk Festival. Check it out!

Sura Susso at the Allen Valleys Folk Festival …

We are excited to be announcing that Sura Susso will be performing on the Saturday afternoon of our 2026 festival.

Sura Susso was born in The Gambia, into a family of griots. Griots, referred to in Mandinka as Jali, are cultural figures in society across West Africa who carry the cultural knowledge and identity of the people.

His father, Mamudou Susso, is a renowned kora player in The Gambia, and his late mother, Fatou Bintu Cissokho, originally from the Casamance region of Senegal, was a formidable singer and percussionist. Sura moved to the UK at the age of seventeen, as the percussionist in his brother’s band, the Seckou Keita Quintet. He has worked with and performed alongside renown international musicians and his quest to promote the traditional music from his cultural roots in The Gambia and his fascination with experimenting new genres have led him to perform and record in a number of interesting cross-cultural settings.

Sura Susso at the Allen Valleys Folk Festival? We can’t wait!

Festival weekend passes go on sale locally in person on 21st March at St Cuthbert's Church Hall from 10:00am to 12:00noon, then online at 7:00pm on Sunday 22nd March.