{
  "country_code": "GN",
  "id": "nyagassola-sosso-bala-oracle",
  "title": "Sosso-Bala: an instrument given by a spirit?",
  "category": "signal",
  "date": "1997-06-01",
  "date_label": "Month of the archived intervention, not an authenticated manufacture date",
  "location": "Nyagassola, Guinea",
  "lat": 12.35,
  "lng": -9.43,
  "summary": "A sacred balafon carries an epic and competing origin accounts. One tradition attributes it to a king's craft; another to a spirit, with sound serving as an oracle.",
  "documented_claim": "The archived intervention describes the sacred instrument's oracular role in tradition.",
  "unproven_claim": "A spirit made the instrument or its music reliably predicts future events.",
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "Narmankoumba Kouyaté — Sosso-Bala intervention, Marrakech, June 1997",
      "url": "https://ich.unesco.org/doc/src/1997-06-Marrakech-Intervention_Kouyate%2C_Narmankoumba.pdf",
      "language": "French",
      "kind": "Archived attributed tradition account; indexed excerpts",
      "note": "Direct retrieval was challenged. Chronological arithmetic is inconsistent; exact manufacture date is not adopted.",
      "id": "S1",
      "accessed_on": "2026-09-30"
    },
    {
      "title": "UNESCO — Cultural space of Sosso-Bala",
      "url": "https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/cultural-space-of-sosso-bala-00009",
      "language": "English",
      "kind": "Institutional tradition record",
      "note": "Documents guardianship and alternative origin accounts, not experimentally verified prediction.",
      "id": "S2",
      "accessed_on": "2026-09-30"
    }
  ],
  "country": "Guinea",
  "author": "Eklipsis",
  "content_languages": [
    "en"
  ],
  "path": "/investigations/nyagassola-sosso-bala-oracle",
  "source_url": "https://ich.unesco.org/doc/src/1997-06-Marrakech-Intervention_Kouyate%2C_Narmankoumba.pdf",
  "location_precision": "region",
  "location_note": "Approximate orientation marker for the named locality, not an exact encounter, burial, ritual or excavation position.",
  "location_source_url": "https://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=12.35&mlon=-9.43#map=8/12.35/-9.43",
  "reviewed_on": "2026-09-30",
  "edition": 1,
  "truth_type": "unknown",
  "verdict": "Guardianship and competing origin traditions are documented. A spirit origin, precise manufacture year and predictive efficacy are not established.",
  "sections": [
    {
      "title": "The mystery and the documented account",
      "text": "An archived 1997 intervention attributed to Narmankoumba Kouyaté describes the Sosso-Bala as an oracle of Sumaoro Kanté and recounts its receipt from a superior spirit. The text also asserts manufacture by the king. UNESCO preserves the alternatives of royal manufacture and a jinni's gift, and locates the instrument's guardianship with the Dökala family at Nyagassola. The instrument transmits the Sunjata epic. Its sound is therefore evidence of an enduring musical tradition; the account of prediction requires separate investigation.",
      "refs": [
        "S1",
        "S2"
      ]
    },
    {
      "title": "The question worth investigating",
      "text": "How have guardians narrated the instrument's origin and oracular role, and which claims can be dated independently? Can the instrument's material history be separated from epic chronology?",
      "refs": []
    },
    {
      "title": "Evidence, provenance and uncertainty",
      "text": "The intervention was consulted through indexed excerpts; direct access returned an automated-access challenge. Its chronology contains an arithmetic inconsistency, so no exact manufacture date is adopted. UNESCO's synthesis records tradition rather than testing predictions.",
      "refs": [
        "S1",
        "S2"
      ]
    },
    {
      "title": "Inspector’s assessment",
      "text": "Guardianship and competing origin traditions are documented. A spirit origin, precise manufacture year and predictive efficacy are not established.",
      "refs": []
    },
    {
      "title": "Next research and discriminating evidence",
      "text": "Compare attributed guardian narratives and epic versions without collapsing alternatives. Audit every chronological calculation. Use consent-based documentation and existing conservation records to examine material history; no unauthorized handling is proposed.",
      "refs": []
    }
  ],
  "timeline": [
    {
      "date": "Traditional royal setting, undated independently",
      "text": "The intervention places the balafon with Sumaoro Kanté.",
      "refs": [
        "S1"
      ]
    },
    {
      "date": "June 1997",
      "text": "The archived intervention describes origin and oracle traditions.",
      "refs": [
        "S1"
      ]
    },
    {
      "date": "2001 / 2008",
      "text": "UNESCO records proclamation and Representative List inscription.",
      "refs": [
        "S2"
      ]
    },
    {
      "date": "30 September 2026",
      "text": "Eklipsis compiles this English documentary investigation from the named sources. No field visit or new eyewitness interview is claimed.",
      "refs": []
    }
  ],
  "claims": [
    {
      "text": "The archived intervention describes the sacred instrument's oracular role in tradition.",
      "status": "Documented in the named record",
      "refs": [
        "S1"
      ]
    },
    {
      "text": "A spirit made the instrument or its music reliably predicts future events.",
      "status": "Not established by the selected evidence",
      "refs": [
        "S1",
        "S2"
      ]
    },
    {
      "text": "Guardianship and competing origin traditions are documented. A spirit origin, precise manufacture year and predictive efficacy are not established.",
      "status": "Editorial assessment; stated limits apply",
      "refs": []
    }
  ],
  "hypotheses": [
    {
      "title": "A sacred origin legitimizing hereditary guardianship",
      "status": "Tradition-based interpretation",
      "support": "Origin accounts and guardianship appear together in the sources.",
      "limits": "This explains narrative function, not supernatural manufacture.",
      "test": "Compare attributed accounts across generations."
    },
    {
      "title": "Royal craftsmanship remembered through an epic object",
      "status": "Alternative preserved by UNESCO",
      "support": "Manufacture by the king is explicitly recorded alongside the spirit account.",
      "limits": "Material dating and exact provenance remain separate questions.",
      "test": "Compare conservation records and securely dated descriptions."
    }
  ],
  "tasks": [
    {
      "title": "Trace the earliest accessible record",
      "body": "For Sosso-Bala: an instrument given by a spirit?, record author or storyteller, collection date, language, translation, page and exact scope. Distinguish evidence of a story being told from evidence of its events. Note which full documents remain unavailable."
    },
    {
      "title": "Investigate the central question",
      "body": "Compare attributed guardian narratives and epic versions without collapsing alternatives. Audit every chronological calculation. Use consent-based documentation and existing conservation records to examine material history; no unauthorized handling is proposed."
    },
    {
      "title": "Compare explanations without merging evidence",
      "body": "Compare attributed accounts across generations. Compare conservation records and securely dated descriptions. Preserve contradictions and unsuccessful searches; proposed work remains unperformed."
    }
  ]
}