Malian guitarist Habib Koité and Gambian kora player Sura Susso play Chidham Village Hall on Saturday 31 October, 8pm. Tickets £25 plus fee, 35 left.

Two West African musicians born into griot families are bringing their UK tour to a village hall just outside Chichester. Guitarist Habib Koité and kora player Sura Susso play The Old Malthouse, also known as Chidham Village Hall, on Saturday 31 October, with doors at 7.30pm and the music from 8pm, according to the event’s ticket page.

Tickets are £25 plus a £2.50 booking fee. When we checked the page on 6 October, it showed 35 tickets left.

The tour’s publicists, Riotsquad Publicity, list the date simply as Chichester. The ticket page puts it at the Old Malthouse on the A259 at Chidham Lane, which it describes as “a near 200 year old maltings with a fabulous atmosphere”.

Sura Susso holding a kora and Habib Koité holding an acoustic guitar, standing side by side on a riverbank
Sura Susso, with his kora, and Habib Koité, with his guitar, on a riverbank. Photo: supplied by Riotsquad Publicity

Who is playing

The tour press release calls the pair “two of West Africa’s most compelling musical voices”: Koité a “Malian guitar virtuoso” and Susso a “Gambian kora maestro”.

On Koité, the release says he was “born into a noble line of Khassonké griots”, tunes his guitar “to the pentatonic scale and playing on open strings”, and has a fingerpicking style that “echoes instruments such as the kora and the kamale n’goni”. It says he has sold more than 400,000 albums, played more than 1,700 concerts around the world, and worked with musicians from Jackson Browne and the Art Ensemble of Chicago to Eric Bibb and Oumou Sangaré.

Susso, the release says, comes from “a renowned Gambian griot lineage” and is “a master of the 22-string kora”. He moved to the UK at 17 to perform with his older brother, Seckou Keita, and has since worked across classical, jazz and world music, with artists including the violinist Maximilian Baillie, the erhu player Ling Peng, the sitarist Purbayan Chatterjee and the trumpeter Erik Truffaz.

On stage they lead what the release calls “a landmark cross-generational project uniting musicians from Senegal, Mali, and The Gambia”, with kora, balafon, percussion, bass and vocals. The ticket page adds that Koité will play with members of his band, Bamada, and other West African musicians.

The album behind the tour

The tour is built around Londi, Susso’s new album with Koité, released on African Night Fever on 9 October on CD, vinyl and streaming platforms. The title means “knowledge” in Mandinka, and the record, in the release’s words, “celebrates the enduring legacy of the griot tradition”.

The release explains what that tradition is: “Known as ‘djeli’ in Mandinka culture, griots are storytellers, historians, musicians, and custodians of oral heritage, who pass knowledge and ancestral wisdom from one generation to the next, not through books, but through voices, melodies and performance; a lineage both Koité and Susso were born into.”

The partnership goes back ten years. According to the release, African Night Fever organised Koité’s first UK tour in 2016 and invited Susso to open the shows. “What began as a series of performances soon developed into a profound artistic friendship,” it says. “Through nightly improvisations and shared experiences on and off stage, a unique musical dialogue emerged.”

Londi has ten tracks: four recorded in Bamako with Koité and six by Susso and his band in Banjul. The Gambian kora player Jaliba Kuyateh, described as “a true giant of the Kora”, appears on one track, “Yamaro”. The title track, sung in Mandinka and Wolof, came out as a single in August; the release says the song “reminds us that wisdom grows when it is shared”.

Who is putting it on

The Chidham night is presented by WemsFest with African Night Fever, as part of Black History Month. The organiser’s page says “the dance floor will be full”, with unreserved seating and room for dancing, and a licensed bar serving Langham Brewery beer.

WemsFest says all profits from the bar and tickets go back into the local community, paying for music workshops in local schools each October for Black History Month. This year the charity bucket on the bar is collecting for relationships and sex education in local schools, delivered by Options Chichester.

Facts panel: Habib Koité and Sura Susso play The Old Malthouse, Chidham Village Hall, on Saturday 31 October 2026. Doors 7.30pm, show 8pm. Tickets £25 plus £2.50 booking fee. Unreserved seating with room for dancing.
The Chidham date at a glance. Graphic by Chichester Live
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What it means for you

  • Date and time: Saturday 31 October 2026. Doors 7.30pm, music 8pm.
  • Venue: The Old Malthouse (Chidham Village Hall), A259 at Chidham Lane, Chidham.
  • Tickets: £25 plus a £2.50 booking fee online at WeGotTickets, or in person at Bookends and Harbour Records in Emsworth and The Westbourne Cafe in Westbourne, according to the organiser.
  • Age: all ages, with under-18s accompanied by an adult.
  • Access: anyone with mobility needs is asked to contact WemsFest in advance at adwemsfest@gmail.com or on 07802 500 050.
  • Other dates: the tour runs from 22 October to 1 November. The nearest other date is Ropetackle Arts Centre in Shoreham-by-Sea on 30 October; the full list is on African Night Fever’s page.

The same night, The Archers: Live at 75 is at Chichester Festival Theatre, and 31 October is also Halloween: see what is on for Halloween in Chichester. More dates are in what’s on in Chichester this month.