One thing I was sure about before coming to Dakar was that I was going to see Youssou N’Dour in concert. He is a legend worldwide and widely considered one of Africa’s greatest singers of all time. I couldn’t believe it only took two and half weeks for this wish to become a reality. Since I was sick for the first real weekend in Dakar this would also be my first night out. We got to the concert a little early so we were able to get some pretty good seats, which we gave up as soon as Youssou came on so we could get closer and do some dancing. The concert was incredible, more than I could have dreamed of. The venue was outside at the Institut Francais (a French cultural center in downtown where they have all sorts of events going on all the time). It was not a huge venue, but capacity was definitely met, if not exceeded. It’s tough to write about and event like this because I know that there is no way I could possibly to it justice.
All I can say is it was incredible, such a great time. The band was energetic and sharp, and the collection of instruments gave their sound a certain complexity that was accompanied by the fantastic voice Youssou N’Dour. An unforgettable experience that I hope to relive soon.
The show featured a great mix of mbalax, afro-groove, and reggae. To my great enjoyment Youssou played quite a few songs from his new album, Dakar to Kingston, which is reggae filled compilation of tunes featuring some of reggae’s best musicians. I think most of, if not all, of the songs were recorded in studios in Jamaica. Youssou was on stage with a huge band. Of note were a great guitarist, a wild dancer, and a couple energetic drummers, who were brought to center stage on multiple occasions. For one particularly lively number Youssou shared the stage with a reggae singer whose name I was unable to catch.
Youssou played just about exactly a two hour set, which ended at around 11, so after a wearing two hours of dancing, which was interrupted from time to time by a French couple behind me who refused to stand up and dance with everyone else and asked me to sit on several occasions (this didn’t do much good for my thought of the French even though here in Senegal I think there is some rare connection between us as them as foreigners, or white people, or both) it was time to go out. We started at a pretty small bar close by, next to Ali Baba’s, where we had eaten chawarmas before he concert. There was a band doing some covers of classic reggae and Motown songs, and some people were dancing. Our group of about 8 students hitched on to a couple of Senegalese girls who were visiting from France, and we all went to a couple clubs, which were none too impressive. There was music and dancing but most of it was songs that you’d hear at a high school party and the only reason you don’t mind them all that much is that you’re drunk and girls love them, so who cares? One thing I did notice in these clubs was that there was always an entire wall that was covered in full sized mirrors. These attracted the sleeziest of the sleez-bags who would dance right in front of them, thinking perhaps that they were the star of some crappy rap video. This practice, along with having observed the amount of harassment experienced by foreign women in Dakar, has led me to believe that maybe the ratio of males to females is unnaturally unfavorable for the unfortunate men of Dakar. The night ended as everyone was getting really tired, and
No comments:
Post a Comment