The KORA All Africa Music Awards are music awards given annually for musical achievement in sub-Saharan Africa. Founded in 1994 by Ernest Adjovi, they are comparable to the American Grammy Awards in intent. The award is named after the kora, a West African plucked chordophone. Since its inception, the KORA Awards has been staged twelve times on the African Continent. For the first ten years, the ceremony has taken place in South Africa. It has since moved to Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire. In 2015 the awards reached a permanent agreement to host the awards in Namibia.