Visiting Sona Jobarteh and the Gambia Academy

The Commonwealth Resounds visited old friends Sona Jobarteh and the Gambia Academy to explroe the incredible work taking place in this beautiful area of the world.

When travelling around and exploring the beautiful, fascinating country of Gambia, local people greet you warmly and are always ready for a friendly chat, or to help you find your way to a location. If you mention the name Sona Jobarteh, especially in and around Kartong on the West Coast of Gambia, people’s faces light up in recognition. Sona is well-known and loved in her own country and celebrated around the world, not only for her brilliant musicianship as the first professional female kora player to come from any of the West African Griot dynasties, but also for her distinctive voice as a composer and her astonishing achievements in founding and developing the Gambia Academy.

Alison Cox, Founder and Trustee of The Commonwealth Resounds, remembers Sona as a gentle, intelligent 14-year-old, who came to The Purcell School in Hertfordshire, UK to study composition and cello.
Sona’s older brother, Tunde Jegede, who attended the school a few years earlier, gave a beautiful kora to the school as a present when he left, which hung on a wall until Sona arrived and ‘adopted’ it! Staff and students were delighted to know that this special instrument was being played and appreciated again.

Sona quickly established herself as a unique musical voice in the profession. Her official website describes an extraordinary musical journey and groundbreaking educational developments.

One of the most astonishing and striking aspects of her work with the Gambia Academy is that it has been funded almost entirely by Sona’s high-profile international musical performances.

For all the reasons above and more, Alison Cox and Martin Wess, Trustees of The Commonwealth Resounds, decided to embark upon a (self-funded) fact-finding trip to Gambia to visit Sona, learn more about the Gambia Academy and meet the teachers and students with a view to helping support their work.

The Gambia Academy has been running for 10 years, and the classes and accommodation are all based in the same small building. Sona Jobarteh currently accommodates 40 students, some of whom travel for hours each day to attend the school. She would like to increase this number to 100. Sona raises all the funding herself. She is building guest accommodation for visiting tutors and supporters of the Academy, and has now purchased a site for the larger school building nearby. The foundations are being laid but more funding is still needed to complete the new premises

Alison Cox with Sona Jobarteh.

Sona’s vision for the Gambia Academy is to produce young entrepreneurs, who will be able to create employment and opportunities for themselves in their own community.
Alison says ‘I was amazed and completely blown away by Sona’s vision for her students. The Gambia Academy is an astonishing place, where young people learn life-changing skills to equip them for tomorrow’s world.’

Posters from around the world

Sona’s concert posters. She performs all over the world, and much of her income raised from these events is used to fund the Gambia Academy.

All the students study music and there are expert tutors teaching djembe, dance, balafon and kora as well as other academic subjects.

When Alison Cox and Martin Wess visited the Gambia Academy, not only did Sona arrange for the students and teachers to come in specially to greet them, but they also created a special performance for the visitors.

The Commonwealth Resounds is delighted to be associated with the Gambia Academy, and we are planning to run a collaborative project with them in February 2026. We would also like to warmly encourage people to support Sona’s work and vision.