First published on 11.01.2012.
The announcement by Yossou N’Dour that he intends to run for the presidency of Senegal has received a huge amount of well-deserved attention. By any standards N’Dour is a major hybrid musical/activist celebrity. Not only is N’Dour a 2005 Grammy winner for ‘Contemporary World Music’ but he was the only African star to play at the 2005 Live 8 in Hyde Park. Indeed he combined his London appearance with two other events on the same day, travelling by helicopter and plane to the Eden ‘Africa calling’ project in Cornwell and then to another Live 8 concert in Versailles. In 2007 he was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential personalities in the world.
Yossou N’Dour at a concert. (Photo: Thesupermat)
N’Dour hybridity is reinforced by his strong mix of commitment to local and global activities. Despite living and working overseas, family, artistic, and business ties with Senegal remain close and deep including the ownership of the TFM (Television Futurs Medias) radio and television station where he announced his candidacy. At the same time N’Dour views himself as a de facto ambassador for the entire continent of Africa, with an obligation and need to represent it on the global stage. His interests have a strong functional tenor notably his role in the campaign to stop the flow of toxic wastes from north to south.
There is also a degree of hybridity in N’Dour’s organizational role. Akin to many other well-known entertainers he is embedded in the UN system as a UNICIF goodwill ambassador. However, he also has close ties to a number of NGOs above all ONE. I was at the media centre at the 2007 Heiligendamm G8 when N’Dour appeared with Bono and Bob Geldof carrying material from ONE to lobby George W. Bush on development and HIV/AIDS on the first day of the summit.
The big question is whether or not N’Dour can now stretch this sense of hybridity to allow him to capitalize on his identity as someone who is outside of the political elite of Senegal (with a modest background related to a mechanic father and griot, or praise singer, mother) but who has networked with the most powerful African personalities. Among other activities N’Dour played at the famous concert for Nelson Mandela’s 46664 charity in Cape Town in 2003.
Yossou N’Dour during his election campaign. (Photo: EPA)
All of this raises the question of whether N’Dour can utilize his extraordinary personality to move into the hard-edged and entrenched terrain of Senegalese politics. After all in the past, N’Dour has raised the scope of his ambition higher. At the African Union summit in 2007, N’Dour voiced support for the idea of a United States of Africa, and indicated that he would run for the united continent’s first president. “Apart from all demagogy, I solemnly announce my candidacy for leading the future African government. I’m aware of the enormous stakes connected to this issue, and I have the required capacities.”
This unrealized higher ambition can be interpreted in both a pessimistic and optimistic manner. The pessimistic interpretation is that after his announcement of his candidacy, N’Dour will see the enormity of the task of unseating Senegal’s longstanding leader, Abdoulaye Wade –- over 11 years in office – with the election fast approaching in February 2012 and leave the challenge to others from an already crowded field.
The more optimistic view is that N’Dour has been galvanized into a domestic political career by the marked deterioration of the situation in Senegal, with Wade campaignmarred by charges that his attempt to win a seeking a third term of office is unconstitutional, and increased societal due to enhanced inequality and deterioration of living conditions.
What is clear is that N’Dour does not possess the baggage that many other celebrities in the global South are associated with. Unlike George Weah in his presidential bid in Liberia or Imran Khan in Pakistan there is no air of opportunism in N’Dour’s efforts. Instead of rushing into a presidential campaign shortly after a long spell overseas, N’Dour is an authentic candidate with a strong and sustained track record of service.
Unlike Wyclef Jean in Haiti N’Dour’s disconnect to the elite frees him from any image that he is a proxy candidate for an establishment family. And unlike Wyclef – with his NGO Yéle Haiti – N’Dour’s commercial and musical endeavours are free of any whiff of irregularities.
Together with this lack of negatives, N’Dour has the combination of positive traits that makes him an extremely attractive candidate for the presidency of Senegal. A major theme in his music and life is the vision of straddling the Anglophone-Francophone, North/South and religious divides, with toleration being a central theme of his Egypt album released amid all the emotion of an inter-civilization clash in the post-9/11 environment Yet, he has made choices on principle that have cut into his material benefits including a cancellation of a major tour to the US to protest the invasion of Iraq. Many of N’Dour’s concerts over the years have ended with the cry of “Youssou pour le président”. Up to now however he has resisted the temptations of national office, preferring to stay free on the outside of power to do, say and sing what he wants. By his embrace of the political process in Senegal now he puts all of his hybrid or straddling characteristics to an onerous but promising test.
