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Marc Pevar, Lucy Durán and Sirifo Sissoko reflect on the West African harp, the kora.

The 21-string harp, the kora, is deeply explored in this Afropop Worldwide program.

The award-winning Rainforest World Music Festival in Malaysia hosts an unprecedented virtual musical showcase next weekend. Here are some highlights.

In the city of Briançon in eastern France, a group of people is searching for the heroes lost on their adventures. The migrants attempt to cross the Alps in below zero temperatures, without warm clothes and often without enough food. Fana is only 18 but he feels he became a man at the age of 12 when he decided to go on an adventure and leave his home in Guinea, seeking a better life in Europe. Unlike our previous hero Mamadou, he made it to France. In this episode, we explore what happens to the “tounkan namo”, or “the adventurers”, who succeed. And the price of their success.

Many boys dream of dangerous adventures, of becoming a hero - the strongest, smartest, bravest man of all. As did the young Guinean man Mamadou Alpha. After the death of his father, all he ever wanted was to get his mother out of poverty and become the perfect son, the family hero. At just 18, he embarked on an illegal migration route to Europe Guineans call “the adventure”, or “tounkan” in the local Malinké language. Thousands of African adventurers or “tounkan namo” die on these routes trying to cross the Mediterranean in search of a better life in Italy, Germany or France.