While the US is watching (or not) the caucuses in Iowa, another country is preparing its future elections in February, and the great Senegalese singer and musician Youssou N’Dour has announced that he is running for President of his country.
In a statement broadcast on TV and radio, he declared:
‘For a long time, men and women have demonstrated their optimism, dreaming of a new Senegal. They have in various ways called for my candidacy in the February Presidential race. I listened. I heard.’
In the US, N’Dour may have been known thanks to Peter Gabriel and Bono in the late 80s, but he began performing at 12, formed his ensemble the Etoile de Dakar in 1979, and is described as one the most celebrated African musicians in history and the most famous singer alive in Africa.
But when I think about Youssou N’Dour, I also think about the many social and political issues to which he has associated himself over the years, like for example his concert for the release of Nelson Mandela, his performance in Amnesty International Human Rights Now! Tour, or his work with UNICEF and IntraHealth International.
According to the New York Times, he is joining the battle at a late date, ‘just eight weeks before the first round of balloting’, and against a dozen other candidates.
But none of them is Youssou N’Dour, a guy who has neverf orgotten his country, and has heavily invested in it. But he is also a guy who doesn’t have a real political experience.
He just cancelled his upcoming concerts, and I really hope he can be elected, because, despite this lack of experience, he presents himself as a self-made man who has accomplished a lot:
‘It’s true that I haven’t pursued higher education, but I have proved my competence, commitment, rigor and efficiency time and time again, I have studied at the school of the world. Travel teaches as much as books’.
I agree, and when you look at the current US republican candidates, who have supposedly a high level of education, and listen to their speeches, you just want to laugh and rage at all the absurdities they can say… there is more humanity and intelligence in Youssou N’Dour’s little finger than in Santorum and Romney’s both entire heads.
But, even in his country where he is widely popular, his music style has become less and less trendy among the young generation, and ‘he has been supplanted by the rappers’, someone said, ….ha! no one can escape the rappers.