In modern times the Bambe have often become absorbed into the Mande or Jola cultures.
The drum is originally from the Jola (Jóola) people in the south of Senegal, the Casamance and the Gambia, the Jóola Buluf, the Jóola Fogny and the Jóola Kalunai.
The Balanta play a gourd lute instrument called a kusunde, similar to the Jola akonting but with the short drone string (A#/B) at the bottom rather than the top.
Jola | Jola people |
Daniel Laemouahuma Jatta is a Jola scholar and musician from Mandinary, Gambia, who pioneered the research and documentation of the akonting, a Jola folk lute, as well as the related Manjago folk lute, the buchundu, in the mid-1980s.
Surnames drawn from Food Items are Balikai (Banana), Bendikai (Okra), Bellolli (Garlic), ULLagaDDi (Onion), MeNasinakai (Chilli), Tenginakai (Coconut), Byali (Pulse/Dal), Tuppa (Ghee), Palle (Vegetable), Guggari (Boiled Food grains), Churamari (Bhel), Sajji (A type of Food grain), Akki (Rice), Jola (Jawar)
In October 1952 his wife Jola Jobst (ex-wife of German Luftwaffe ace Hermann Graf), whom he had married in 1950, committed suicide.