Kora Camp
A two-week immersive kora retreat taught by the Cissokhokunda, in the region the instrument — and the Diali’s own lineage — comes from. Weekly masterclasses, dance, oral history, cooking and excursions, built around a winter season.
From arrival to final showcase
Arrival, meeting at the airport and then head to Casamance.
Welcome orientation briefing with music and snacks. Settle into your room at the camp, meet the Cissokhokunda, then a communal meal is served.
Hands-on lessons taught in person by the Cissokhokunda family, daily across both weeks.
Diali oral-history sessions, traditional dance and cooking lessons between kora blocks.
Guided excursions around Casamance fill the rest days in each of the two weeks.
The students perform what they learned, alongside the Cissokhokunda family in a final showcase.
In the two weeks
Start with the teaching
Tuition is $380 a week — two masters, teaching daily. That is the part you cannot take out. Lodging, meals, transfers and the cultural programme are yours to add or leave, and the builder below totals it as you choose. Most people take everything, which is what the two plans below come to.
- Everything in What’s Included
- A kora provided, tuned and ready
- Best for a first visit without an instrument
- Everything in What’s Included
- Travel with your own kora
- Best for returning students
Kora Camp — two weeks inside a Diali family
Twelve places. Eight in the first group. Two kora masters, Mamadou and Atab, teaching by hand position on twenty-one strings — which is why the number is small and why it will not grow. When these are gone the next chance is a year away.
The camp is two weeks, so the full stay is $1,845 — or $1,995 with a kora provided. $195 holds your place, non-refundable and credited in full against the total; the balance spreads across twelve monthly payments of $138 (or $150) and falls due 60 days before departure.
Everything but the flight
Airport pickup and drop-off, lodging at the Kora Camp compound, three meals a day plus snacks twice daily, daily kora teaching, dance, djembe, oral history, cooking, every guided excursion and the final showcase. You book one thing: the flight.
Nothing is added on arrival. There is no tipping expectation, no excursion sold to you on the day, and no equipment hire.
Only these channels are ours. Kora Camp is arranged through +221 78 838 1879 on WhatsApp, info@korainstrument.com, and this website. Nowhere else.
If somebody contacts you offering places, transport, lodging, lessons or instruments on our behalf — or asks you to pay through a different account, a money-transfer service or an agent — they are not from our family and they do not speak for us. We have not authorised anyone to sell the camp, collect money or make arrangements in our name.
Please be careful with approaches like these, and do not send anyone money on our account without checking with us first. Write to info@korainstrument.com or message the number above and we will tell you straight away whether it came from us. We would always rather answer the question than see somebody lose their money.
What people ask before they reserve
The answers in full. Anything not here, ask Ibrahima — he is on the Kora Camp page, bottom right, and he answers these instantly.
Meals are cooked on site and eaten together, three a day plus snacks, and the Cissokhokunda are there across the two weeks to teach. The cooking lessons come out of that same kitchen. Tell us about allergies or dietary needs when you reserve — it is cooked fresh rather than catered, so it wants a little notice, and with notice it is not a problem.
Most first-time visitors take the provided instrument. A kora is a large, fragile thing to carry through three airports.
Pre-reservation for 2027
Twelve students at a time, and no more — a kora is taught by hand position on twenty-one strings, so the teaching only stays real while two masters can reach every student. $195 holds your place, and the rest is paid across the year rather than all at once.
$195 now, then twelve months
$195 on pre-reservation — non-refundable, credited in full against the total. Then $150 a month with a kora provided, or $138 a month bringing your own, for twelve months. Any balance falls due 60 days before departure. Cancel the plan at any point and the place goes back to the list.
$195 holds your place
Pay the deposit securely by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay. Within 48 hours we email you the dates, the compound details and your monthly payment schedule. Questions first? Message us on WhatsApp — we answer every one.
Already reserved? Pay this month’s instalment
Choose the monthly amount from your reservation email (built your own plan? it is shown there too) and use the same email you reserved with. To pay several months at once, raise the quantity.
Pay my instalment
Learning With the Dialikunda
The Diali drawn in the same engraved hand as the rest of the collection, printed large. Two lines to choose between — Learning With the Diali describes what the camp is, Learn With the Diali asks you to come. Both are running; the first month of orders can settle which one stays.
The welcome kit
Ships automatically when somebody pre-reserves. Not a gift — the warm-up. Twelve months is a long time to hold a booking on faith, and a box arriving in week one turns an invisible line on a card statement into an object on a shelf.
One shirt, and the rest are small things. The kit contains a single tee — the 2027 loading one — plus a cap, a mug, a tote bag, a notebook, a keychain, a sticker sheet and a pin badge. The Class of 2027 shirt is the second shirt and it is not in the box: it is handed over on the last night of the camp, after the final showcase, because a shirt saying Class of 2027 given out a year early means nothing.
