Daily Times

Mali has called for reparation and condemned “immense cultural damage” after a Malian musician said United States customs agents broke his traditional instrument, sparking outrage online. Renowned kora player Ballake Sissoko landed in Paris on February 4 after touring the US, to find that his instrument had been “completely destroyed” by customs agents in New York. The traditional West African 21-string lute had been dismantled, with a note left by the agents, in Spanish, reading “intelligent security saves time,” according to a post on Sissoko’s Facebook page. “Would U.S. customs have dared to dismantle a Stradivarius?,” the post said, referring to a class of fabled violins. “These kinds of custom-made koras are simply impossible to replace,” it added. Mali’s Culture Minister N’Diaye Ramatoulaye Diallo released a statement on Saturday saying that she “deeply regretted” the incident.