Afrissippi was born in 2002, over a jam session in Oxford , Mississippi, at the home of the legendary R.L. Burnside between Senegalese Fulani griot Guelel Kumba and Burnside apprentice Eric Deaton. The similarities between Kumba’s traditional Senegalese melodies and north Mississippi hill country blues were immediately apparent and thrilling, and so the journey began. A who’s who of North Mississippi’s finest were called in for the formation of Afrissippi, Eric Deaton, an apprentice of the late R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough’s son Kinny Kimbrough on drums, and Justin Showah on bass.