A Concert In Dakar

Papa Wemba is everything a performer should be.

He bounded onto stage in a powder blue ¾ length sleeved rain poncho. He wore gorilla gloves---leather with a 6 inch strip of fur. The band of fluff on his hat matched. Under his poncho we could catch a glimpse—when he’d do a little hop—of black pajama pants with white polka dots.

He’d start each song with a jumping jack move or else an air guitar.

Later, when the poncho came off, we saw a white t-shirt pulled snug over his belly with a red amoeba shaped flower.

Turns out that his back-up singer, a French woman with brilliantly red hair, is married to my coworker’s friend from the rural Tennessee commune (not cult) where they grew up. She had been touring with Ivorian Reggae artist Alpha Blondy and more recently got hooked up with Papa Wemba, the king of Congolese music. She hasn’t been able to travel much since she gave birth and my coworker had the chance to meet up with her old friend and his new baby, who were along for the ride.

This concert had been advertised on posters, billboards and TV, but no start time was ever announced. In Ghana, a time would be stated but the event would have started hours late. We didn’t know how to interpret the non-time of Senegal. We got to the stadium at 9:30pm and by some stroke of luck, the music started within 5 minutes of our arrival; the tickets had 6pm stamped on them.

Senegal is surprisingly chilly in their cold season (for someone used to 90 degree humid weather!). After shivering in the half empty stadium, we decided to go to the parking lot to get something warm to drink. Amber and I were distracted by loud music coming from a nearby building and went to investigate. A DJ and three others were in the upstairs room when “Mr. Lonely” came on. The song was overplayed this time last year in Ghana, but by now I get happily nostalgic when I hear it. We began dancing and immediately warmed up, prepared to go listen to more opening acts.

Duggy Tee, a Senegalese hip hop artist with his own back-up break dancer, came on after Papa Wembe’s big act. It was after 2 am at that point, so we were fading from days of working overtime.

West African music recommendations: Papa Wemba, Duggy Tee, Ishamel Lo, and Baba Maal. Let me know if you want me to burn you a CD!