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Ten years ago today Africa lost one of its most prominent musicians, Malian guitarist and singer Ali Farka Toure, who died after a battle with cancer.

Considered one of the world’s 100 greatest guitarists of all time by Rolling Stone magazine, he won two Grammy awards – for Talking Timbuktu (1994) with American guitarist Ry Cooder, and In the Heart of the Moon (2005) with Malian kora legend Toumani Diabate.

To find out more about his legacy, Â鶹Éç Africa’s Bola Mosuro spoke to ethnomusicologist and record producer Lucy Duran, who teaches African music at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), and who was a good friend of Ali Farka Toure.

Photo: Tiago Angelino, Lisbon, July 2005. Courtesy of World Circuit.