He had taught himself to play guitar and developed a unique style that blended American Blues music, Arab music, and pentatonic structures found in West Africa's Mande cultural region.
Diabaté was born in Kita, Mali, a town relatively near to Mali's capital of Bamako, known for its artistic and cultural prominence within the Manding community of West Africa.
He orchestrated a program of expansion and consolidation which extended the empire from Taghaza in the North to the borders of Yatenga in the South; and from Air in the Northeast to Futa Tooro in Senegambia.
Founded by the Ngbanya clan of Mande horsemen (c. 1600), Yagbum became the capital of their new Gonja kingdom.
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In modern times the Bambe have often become absorbed into the Mande or Jola cultures.