Senegalese Artists Are Fighting The System With A Microphone And Spray Paint – NPR Story-level

Babacar Niang, known as Matador, raps in a recording studio at the Africulturban center in Pikine, Senegal.

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Babacar Niang, known as Matador, raps in a recording studio at the Africulturban center in Pikine, Senegal.

Ricci Shryock for NPR

PIKINE, Senegal — On the Senegal peninsula, just west of Dakar, lies a neighborhood that attracts hundreds of the country’s most talented musicians, artists and creatives.

They all meet at Africulturban, a cultural center in the Pikine neighborhood. The man who founded it wants radical change.

“I fight against the system, but I don’t fight it alone,” says Babacar Niang.

The system he is referring to is poverty. It is high in Senegal, and so is the unemployment rate. The agricultural sector is the country’s largest employer, but it has been rocked by the relentless challenges of climate change.

Niang is an internationally renowned hip-hop artist who founded Africulturban in 2006. As he walks through the halls of the center, he is warmly greeted by young people who call him Matador. He is a stage name and alter ego that belies his calm and welcoming presence.

“The matador fights with the pray blackthe black beast,” he says. “The black beast, for us, is the system. I give young people weapons to fight the system and poverty”.

Niang, left, is a leading figure in Africulturban in Pikine.

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Niang, left, is a leading figure in Africulturban in Pikine.

Ricci Shryock for NPR

Those weapons are of a musical and artistic variety. They manifest as opportunities realized in Africulturban. And the foot soldiers against the system are the 1,500 young people affiliated with the center. There are more than 15 million people in Senegal and a third of them live in poverty. Climate change exacerbates these problems, particularly in the agricultural sector, where 70% of crops depend on rain, according to the World Food Program.

Challenges in the agricultural industry contribute to the country’s high unemployment rate. Unemployment rates skyrocketed between 2002 and 2006, when Africulturban was taking off. The country saw the start of a sharp decline in 2011 that ended in 2019. Since then, unemployment rates have risen again.

Paintings and sculptures line the halls of Africulturban, and music fills the air. Members can choose jazz or break dance classes. Outside, a young man makes a drum by hand.

The center is full of artistic energy. You almost forgot his turbulent origin story.

Niang sees Africulturban as a place where people can learn to fight the system.

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Niang sees Africulturban as a place where people can learn to fight the system.

Ricci Shryock for NPR

“It started with climate change,” says Niang.

In 2005, heavy rains in the Dakar area turned into severe flooding. It was the longest downpour in two decades. Floods spread disease. Cholera cases skyrocketed and hundreds of people died. More than 50,000 were displaced from their homes.

“I told myself, as an artist, I should do something about it,” says Niang.

He wrote a song called “Catástrofe”, which quickly became one of his most recognizable songs.

“The clouds that accumulate from the north herald the rain to come,” says a verse. “People’s faces read concern first, then fear. With the first rains comes the first wave of departures.”

Niang says that the start of the floods created an exodus; young people began to leave in search of stability.

“Even before it starts to rain, people leave and go elsewhere,” Niang says.

As climate change slowly and relentlessly progressed, she began to notice that her community was changing as well.

“I saw the situation,” Niang says. “Families that I knew very well were forced to leave the district.”

And others dreamed of leaving the continent altogether. That did not sit well with Niang.

Niang encourages young Senegalese to stay in the country.

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Niang encourages young Senegalese to stay in the country.

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“It’s not the young Europeans and the young Americans who can come and do the work here,” he says. “It is these young people, the Senegalese youth who are going to do the work.”

Niang got down to business and organized a concert to raise money for the flood victims. That concert sprouted in Africulturban.

In essence, the center tries to use the arts as a way to channel the frustration felt by young Senegalese.

This vision has helped one of its members to make history.

“When I started, my dream was to be a globetrotter with my beret and my spray, sharing my art,” says Dieynaba Sidibe, also known as Zeinixx.

Sidibe, 32, is widely celebrated as Senegal’s first female graffiti artist. She started taking art classes at Africulturban when she was 18 and now runs classes.

“It’s something like each one teaches one,” he says. “I came here to learn graffiti. We didn’t have this kind of opportunity. We didn’t have the space and the mentors who can come and share, like, for free.”

When she’s not breaking gender stereotypes or painting eye-catching murals, Sidibe teaches others about the value of staying in Senegal.

“Senegal is my country. It is my first love,” he says. “For me, youth is the future. I am young and for me I can change many things.”

Africulturban gives young people the tools to change the way they see what their country has to offer.

Most of the people here believe in that mission, including Omar Keita, 43.

“It is possible to do something in our country,” says Keita. “We are the ones who can change Senegal. It is not easy, but we must do it.”

Cheikh Seye, known as King Beats, is a music producer who also trained at the center.

“I work with a lot of great artists in Senegal and I started working in the music industry in 2008,” he says. “And now that I’m here, I work with a lot of artists.”

He is sought after by some of the biggest names in the hip-hop scene. Open a music video and proudly point out the number of views on YouTube. “13 million,” he says.

He is successful and has no plans to leave Senegal. But he says that he has many childhood friends who went to Europe.

That narrative is slowly changing, Niang says.

Niang wants to change the way young Senegalese see their future in the country.

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Niang wants to change the way young Senegalese see their future in the country.

Ricci Shryock for NPR

“For these young people, now that they have demystified their stay in Europe, they can go and come back and work here in their country,” says Niang.

Back in her office, Niang’s walls are covered with awards and accolades from her music career. It is a monument to the passion of his life, but he pays little attention to them.

The awards are nice, but shaping the next generation and changing the system is his proudest job.