In academic circles, The Kora is categorized as a “spiked lute.”   It would, perhaps,  be more descriptive to call it a double-strung harp.  It has a large calabash (gourd) body, a cow hide sound 'board', and twenty-one nylon strings.  Each of the stings is attached to a ring of cow hide braided around a rosewood neck. These tuning rings hold their position only by friction, and can be moved up or down the neck to tension or slack the strings. Though the origins of the kora can be traced back to around the thirteenth century, the instrument as we find it today dates back to the late eighteenth century. Remarkably, it has changed little in the last eight hundred years, or so. One notable modification took place in the early 1950's when the preference turned from strings made of finely twisted strips of antelope hide to nylon fishing line which remains the standard today.

The kora was traditionally played only by Jelis of the Mandinka people - a cultural group whose homeland is situated, roughly, between Kouroussa, Guinea and Bamako, Mali in West Africa. Jelis are hereditary musicians, singers, public speakers, oral historians, praise singers, go-betweens, advisors, and chroniclers. They represent the collective memory of Western Africa. In effect, they are living libraries of their culture, possessing vast repertoires of compositions detailing family lineages, historical epics, and cultural commentary. Jeliya, the art of the jeli, is the field of music most closely associated with the ruling Mandinka elite, but it is appreciated by all members of Manding culture. Jeliya can be chamber music, played in the open courtyard of a patron, or concert music, played in the halls or stadiums of large cities. Although Jeliya is sometimes intended to animate dancing, deep Jeliya is for listening and is meant to inspire listeners to take moral and constructive actions.

Four named traditional heptatonic tunings are in general use. Tomoraba (great Tomora), also known as Siliba (the main road), is the original kora tuning and the one in which the oldest kora songs are played. The other three are: Tomora mesengo (little Tomora), Hardino, and Sauta. Tomoraba is predominant in the Casamance and western Gambia. Tomora mesengo and Hardino are predominant in eastern Gambia, with Sauta prevailing in Mali. Tomoraba and Hardino are somewhat similar to a western major scale. For example, the seven note scale of Tomora has three notes on standard pitch, two that are slightly flat and two that are somewhat sharp. In the Sauta tuning, the fourth degree of the scale is raised a half step. The qualifications - ba (big, great) and mesengo (small, thin, little) refer to the relative positions of the tonic in each of the tunings. Mesengo has a 'thinner' or higher pitch tonic, while ba, has a 'bigger' or lower pitch tonic. There is no real sense of absolute pitch in traditional kora music. The instruments are usually tuned to match the range of the vocalist, who may or may not be the player himself.