El Hadj N'Diaye

A bold work by a true African maverick

Senegal, the West African nation that has produced some of the most powerful and moving voices in African music-those of Youssou N'Dour, Baaba Maal, and Cheikh Lô - has another gift for the world.

El Hadj N'Diaye brings together far-flung strands of Senegalese tradition and identity in an utterly unique musical career.
N'Diaye writes songs informed by a deep knowledge of and compassion for those who are suffering and neglected in Africa, and he writes with a literary flare born of his own experience as an author and actor. But even those who don't understand N'Diaye's Wolof lyrics can hardly miss the passion and sensitivity in his singing voice. From its most tender whisper to its most anguished gut cry, N'Diaye's voice is a marvel, without question worthy of his superstar countrymen.
N'Diaye's mother comes from the Matam region in the far north of Senegal, near the border with Mauritania. His father comes from the extreme south, the Cassamance region, where the MFDC has fought an on-an-off independence struggle since 1983.
In between N'Diaye's two ancestral homes, lie the sliver-like nation of Gambia, and the Senegal's Wolof majority with its center in the crowded, frenetic capital, Dakar.
Since childhood, N'Diaye has faced the complex task of balancing all of these cultural realities. As a boy, he sold cola nuts in Dakar's Thiaroye market. But he went on to study economics at Cheikh Anta Diop University.
Ultimately, it became clear that arts were his true calling, and in addition to his musical career, he ultimately acted in two important films-"Camp de Thiaroye" and "Guelwar"-by the celebrated Senegalese film maker Ousmane Sembene.

Activism and art have always gone hand in hand for N'Diaye.
From the start of his career as a songwriter, N'Diaye made it clear that simple love songs and songs of celebration would not do for him. He sang about official corruption, torture victims in the Cassamance struggle, the troubles of the disenfranchised Tuareg people in northern Mali, and the forgotten shadow people who inhabit Senegal's poorest districts.
N'Diaye has faced hostility and censorship for his brave subject matter, but he has never backed down. He has directed during 10 years arts activities for a non-government organization called Environment, Development and Action enda.
He calls his division, SIGGI ENDA ART, "siggi" being Wolof for "lift up your head."

The year 2000 was good for N'Diaye. His sensational performances at Midem in Cannes, Womex in Berlin, and Cinars in Montreal opened doors of opportunity for him. His previous album, THIAROYE, was honored with a Choc du Monde de la Musique award in France. Meanwhile back at home, N'Diaye appeared in another film, "KARMEN", Joseph Gaye Ramaka's remake of the Bizet opera "Carmen."
Year 2001 too, El Hadj received in France for XEL, "LE GRAND PRIX DU DISQUE DE L'ACADEMIE CHARLES CROS"
XEL is N'Diaye's second album, but for many lovers of African music, it will be the first chance to experience the music of this golden-throated people's poet.
The songs range from searing solo voice, to poignant acoustic ballads, to the energized bustle of Senegal's signature Afropop style, mbalax!
N'Diaye's musical textures are as varied as his themes, incorporating the wooden slatted balafon of the Mande griots, the crack of djembe drums, and the fury of rock guitar. It is a bold work by a true African maverick.

- Banning Eyre

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Géej - New album

One might say that he is a singer of « texts », a teller of songs. In the wake of daily-life poets, memorialists and philosophers, this committed bard is a voice that emerges, boiling over, from its sole subject: reality. His are never just soft « ballads »: they sting in places. Their sobriety is bound to a sentinel, an implacable inner voice in a state of alert. Whether he sings in Wolof, French, English (or even « Wolofised » Japanese), he uses the street for a research lab, with its menial jobs and people inventing life day by day. Seven years after « Xel » he is back, his guitar schemes intact - simple, vertical, played in arpeggios. He has drifted from land to water, from the local to the global, from a suburb of Dakar - the district of Thiaroye - to the sea: « geej ». It is indeed in the ocean - whether as a dream of exile or a hostile grave - that El Hadj has sought bonds. This story is about the young men who clear out on makeshift boats. It is about the Jolaa ferry, the symbol of the opening up of Casamance (transporting goods and people to and from Dakar without crossing Gambia), lost in the waters with some 2000 people on board. It is about the long-expected « sopi » (change) placarded on the walls of a country that feels seasick - the change which never comes. El Hadj’s attitude is clearer than ever: he points to corruption, naming those responsible, however many waves it may make. Accompanying him are the voices of Thomas Sankara - the craftsman behind the scene, whose views were too innovative for his time, who always said: « if we pay (the debt) we will die » - and Cheikh Anta Diop. In the Carbon 14 laboratory - the only nuclear physics lab in black Africa - where he pursued his research in total intellectual solitude, he was the first to know about using the sun as energy. He stood by his choices and he fought against careerism. He now has inspired El Hadj with these jewels of song, both soft and raw, these velvety attacks that also capture the things of love, and reflect fire under water.

- Emmanuelle Honorin

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