Music as a Force for Peace
July 2004
Banner photo: ©SEKAI BUNKA PHOTO
Transformative Power
[Veronique Rolland]
Youssou N’Dour gave an interview to the SGI Quarterly on the theme of "music as a force for peace." Born in Senegal, Youssou N’Dour has become the foremost African musician of his generation. He has also collaborated widely with musicians from around the world. In 1988, he was part of the Amnesty International "Human Rights Now!" tour alongside Peter Gabriel, Bruce Springsteen, Sting and Tracy Chapman. Since 1991 he has been a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF.
SGI Quarterly: How do you see your role as a musician in today’s world?
Youssou N'Dour: Musicians are a society’s communicators. They have always played that role, from traditional societies to modern ones, and with the globalization of the mass media the task has fallen upon internationally known artists to communicate across national lines. We are the moral compass of the world. We hold up a mirror to people, and to peoples, and reflect in that mirror the beauty and the defects, the hope and the frustrations, of everyone. That is why many of us are comfortable singing of matters other than romantic love, individual aspirations and material needs: Because we feel a higher calling, which is to inspire, to exhort, to lead people to an examined life, a conscious life. In this effort, we don’t feel superior to our audiences; not at all. It’s just that this is our vocation, our job--the thing God put us on earth to do.
Inspiration
SGIQ: Many people find your music deeply inspirational. Do you think music can really change people’s lives?
YN'D: Music has an inexplicable way of elevating humankind to its noblest action. Music is the most durable of "cultural goods" and has stood the test of time. Art, like religion or other forms of cultural life, inspires and transforms--it elevates us above our "created" selves, our material, animal, worldly selves, and allows us to participate in the great adventure of Creation, not as partners with the Almighty, of course, but as His willing instrument. Everything a musician plays is an expression of Divine inspiration, and transformative for that very reason. Humankind yearns for the conscious connection to the Almighty which art affords us.
SGIQ: You have done a lot to publicize and address social issues such as protection of human rights, child labor and AIDS prevention. Which is the issue closest to your heart?
[©2000 Jack Vartoogian/FrontRowPhotos]
YN'D: Life is empty without a commitment to remedying the world’s most urgent problems, such as AIDS, brutal poverty, illiteracy, warfare and the denial of freedom of expression and access to the glories of the Digital Information Age. In Senegal, where I live, I have tried to address the lack of access to information technologies by fostering community-based internet centers and working with global partners in the transfer of grassroots technology. I have been a spokesperson in the battle against Africa’s greatest scourge--AIDS. I have worked to develop educational opportunities for Senegal’s children through my endowments for schools and training centers. Warfare cannot be restrained by individuals where superpower nations are in control, but individuals who speak out against the unnecessary ravages of war do make a difference, so I have added my voice to the voices of others opposed to illegal or immoral military action whenever the occasion presented itself. Everyone can contribute something to just causes, and, among these, the cause of peace, according to one’s means and station in life.
SGIQ: Your own culture is very important to you. How do you think people can hold onto their own culture and still be open to others in today’s rapidly changing world?
YN'D: The preservation of one’s own culture is such a natural thing. It is a matter of respecting oneself and one’s own family and nation. It is a way of saying to your own people, as the Zulus do, "Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu." That is, "I am who I am because of you." Having said that, no person wishes to be walled off from the world, to be forced to live in a ghetto. So we all have a natural inclination to share our cultures, which by no means dilutes them--or at least it shouldn’t. The history of the world, at least in peacetime, is a history of mutual enrichment through an exchange of cultural riches. So preservation and exchange can and should go hand in hand. They always have, except when crass commercialism gets in the way, cheapening things for everyone. I think we can be vigilant against that, though.
SGIQ: What have you learned personally from working with musicians from different cultures?
YN'D: Working with musicians from many different countries has brought me a great deal of joy and has taught me so many things. My "musical palette" is filled with different ideas, colors, feelings and approaches. I’m able to compose, to produce and to perform with a "360-degree vision," thanks to all of the musical experiences I’ve been afforded with gifted people from dozens of places far from Senegal but now a part of my interior musical landscape.
African Cultural Riches
SGIQ: At the dawn of the 21st century, what do you think Africa and African cultures have to offer the world?
YN'D: Africa can teach the rest of the world a great deal. We were an "Information Society" before the phrase was thought of, in that the transmission of cultural knowledge has always been part of the African genius: The sheer power of culture has always been paramount in African societies. African culture prizes the retrieval and transfer of information. For this reason, Africa may be able to enter the Digital Information Age more gracefully than might be expected. With the basic tools, Africans will do much in the expanding information sectors. I believe that African optimism over the potential of the internet to allow African economies to leapfrog industrialization and to aspire to more equitable partnership in the world economy of the future is wholly justified. In Senegal, for instance, the human resources are enormous, while natural and technological resources are lacking. Now, in a world economy transformed by the net, new possibilities abound for Senegalese young people able to log on to meet them. I am committed to doing my part to assure that Africa will not be left behind in the post-industrialized world marketplace where the internet is the most meaningful infrastructure.
SGIQ: What does "peace" mean to you? How do you think music can help bring people together, heal divides and create peace?
YN'D: Peace comes from God, and He is the Great Unifier of all. Music, as I know it, is a privileged path to intimacy with God, and with His peace.
[Veronique Rolland]
SGIQ: Your latest album, "Egypt," from which you drew in your recent performance at the Fès Festival of World Sacred Music in Morocco seems to be a meditation on your Islamic faith and a strong affirmation of the peacefulness of Islam. Can you describe your approach to this album?
YN'D: With my syncretic formula of griot praise-singing within an envelope of Sufi-inspired chant, "Egypt" has emerged from a religious milieu in Senegal which is obviously unique. Yet, beyond its Senegalese particularity, "Egypt" is also a confluence of Muslim spiritualities, a melting-pot of religious sentiment, history and search. I pray that "Egypt’s" encounter with the Divine will radiate throughout the album and reach my listeners. I pray "Egypt" may prove to be a harbinger of appreciation for the diverse potentialities of musical art--and of life--not only in the Muslim world but in all communities of faith.
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