Balimaya – meaning brotherhood, or kinship in the broadest sense in Malinké – is a London-based orchestra that brings together children of the great African diaspora and a few spiritual brothers with a passion for the sounds of the Black Atlantic. There’s blood kinship, and there’s heart and spirit kinship, and it’s the latter – and the djembe of its leader, Yahael Camara Onono – that unites the members of this excellent group.
“The djembe is used to unify people, to bring them together, and it’s the perfect instrument…