Mande Music, by author Eric Charry, is the definitive book on the subject. This is a great resource for those seeking a deeper understanding of the music and cultural significance of the musician in West African society.

Companion CD to Mande Music now available.
• 36 musical transcriptions.
• Perfect for learning or reference.
• Recorded excerpts from the author's own field recordings, performances and commercially released recordings. Total playing time: 56 minutes

With Mande Music, Eric Charry offers the most comprehensive source available on one of Africa's richest and most sophisticated music cultures. Using resources as disparate as early Arabic travel accounts, oral histories, and archival research as well as his own extensive studies in Mali, Guinea, Senegal, and the Gambia, Charry traces this music culture from its origins in the thirteenth-century Mali empire to the book studios of Paris and New York. He focuses on the four major spheres of Mande music--hunter's music, music of the jelis or griots, jembe and other drumming, and guitar-based modern music--exploring how each evolved, the types of instruments used, the major artists, and how each sphere relates to the others.

With its maps, illustrations, and musical transcriptions as well as an exhaustive bibliography, discography, and videography, this book is essential reading for those seeking an in-depth look at one of the most exciting, innovative, and deep-rooted phenomena on the world music scene.

Eric Charry is a professor at Wesleyan, here is great article on the djembe drum.