A top Malian kora player said his handmade instrument was destroyed by US custom officials as he flew back from a concert, sparking outrage over the treatment of African musicians performing abroad.

After a two-week tour of the United States, top Malian kora player Ballake Sissoko was flying back to Paris when he found his handmade instrument in pieces.

Inside the case, a note in Spanish from US customs read: “intelligent security saves time.”

A photo of his kora, a 21-string harp played by the Mandinka people of West Africa, posted on Facebook shows the instrument lying on the floor with its neck separated from the rest and strings wrapped around it.

"Would US customs have dared to dismantle a Stradivarius?" he asked in his post. “This is [...] a reflection of the kind of cultural ignorance and racism that is taking over in so many parts of the world and that endangers the best of musicians from Africa and elsewhere.”

West African kora players, who pass on the tradition from one generation to the next, are respected musicians and storytellers, with names such as Ballake Sissoko and Toumani Diabate from Mali, Sona Jobarteh from the Gambia, and Djeli Moussa Diawara from Guinea attracting big crowds at home and abroad.