‘Beat the balafons’: Senegal gets back in touch with its true musical roots

In Dakar’s thriving club scene, previously overlooked musical traditions are finding common ground with modern influences such as hip-hopSaturday night in Dakar, Senegal. Youths from outlying suburbs such as Pikine and Guédiawaye are busy reinventing hip-hop. In April, Paris’s Banlieues Bleues festival set aside a whole evening to proclaim that “Dakar is Rap”, celebrating this high-voltage scene that has started airing its views on politics, anything from problems with the water s