Senegalese music scene - The world's most political hip-hop scene
The great music revolutions of our times have come from Africa, and the next one is brewing there right now. Soon, our local music industries will be swamped with it. Afrobeats, Azonto, Kuduro and South African House are club music styles based on traditional rhythms, becoming a means of expressing the identity for an entire generation. This is rock'n'roll happening to Africa - and spreading to the rest of the whole world. Get the rhythm and the rhymes of modern African urban music and rediscover it in international music trends. Fonko is a documentary television series about social and political change in Africa seen through an avalanche of striking, innovative and visual music. Music however, is only one aspect of a dramatic social change. Africa is home to some of the fastest growing countries in the world and in the globalised world, African music, politics and industry will eventually affect everything. In Fonko you meet Africa's most influential musicians in their home cities.
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Senegal, on the western tip of Africa, has been a cultural crossroads for ages. Today the capital Dakar is the unrivalled centre for the West African hip hopscene. Taking it's influences from, Paris, New york as well as local sources, the hip hop movement has shaped the political history of Senegal. Music in Senegal is rooted in the daily life and political upheavals of the country. The Senegalese music scene experienced a real revolution under the presidency of the poet Leopold Sédar Senghor, who led a policy promoting the local and cultural identity of the Senegalese. It is in this context that was born the most listened and popular musical style of Senegal, Mbalax. A musical style influenced by Wolof culture and drums, pioneered by Youssou N'dour. Music is a way in this West African country to assert a cultural identity specific to the country, which wants to be independent from Europe or the United States.
In addition, Senegal meets another important musical wave with the rap, of which it becomes one of the biggest scenes of the continent. Rappers have turned rap into an instrument of counter-power in this country with a turbulent political history. Rap conveys political messages, a way to educate people and to incite them to vote. Rap constitutes as a counter power, mirror views of the new generation. Influenced above all by the Burkinabe political icon, Thomas Sankara, music in Senegal seeks to change the system and daily life by asserting a self-reliant and independent African identity.
Through this documentary, we meet many Senegalese artists including: Youssou N'dour, Carlou D, Didier Awadi, Sister Fa, Daara J and many more
Original title: Fonko - Episode 3/6: Senegal
A film by Lamin Daniel Jadama, Lars Lovén
Narrated by Neneh Cherry
2014 © Licensed by First Hand Films
#documentary #music #mbalax #senegal #rap
