Ba Tounkara was born in Dampa Diarisso circa 1934, and died in Bamako in 2021. She was a jeli (griot)—including to Mali’s first president Modibo Keita—and a singer. As an artist, she was a founding member of several bands and groups including Tlema jeli niw ka ton, Ambiance, and Balimaya. She was also a founding member of Mali’s Ensemble Instrumental, the national orchestra of mandinka music established in 1961, soon after the country’s independence. Along with the orchestra she took part in several diplomatic trips, as cultural ambassadors of the new nation, throughout West Africa as well as in Germany, USSR, Yugoslavia, China, Korea.