Islam and Popular Music in Senegal A
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Recording Postcolonial Nationhood: Islam and Popular Music in Senegal A dissertation presented to the faculty of the College of Fine Arts of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy Samba Camara December 2017 © 2017 Samba Camara. All Rights Reserved. 2 This dissertation titled Recording Postcolonial Nationhood: Islam and Popular Music in Senegal by SAMBA CAMARA has been approved for Interdisciplinary Arts and the College of Fine Arts by Andrea Frohne Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Arts Matthew R. Shaftel Dean, College of Fine Arts 3 ABSTRACT CAMARA, SAMBA, Ph.D., December 2017, Interdisciplinary Arts Recording Postcolonial Nationhood: Islam and Popular Music in Senegal Director of Dissertation: Andrea Frohne Using Senegal’s Islam-infused popular music as lens, this dissertation examines the ways in which modern Senegalese singers have used musical lyricism and performance to celebrate collective Muslim identities, but also to negotiate a pan-ethnic and trans-religious discourse of national unity. Focusing on mbalax and jolof rap as the country’s signature music genres, the dissertation proposes that contemporary Senegalese singers blend indigenous verbal art with modern poetry to create a new musical language aimed for bridging over religious and ethnic marginalities. By codeswitching the Wolof language with French, Arabic, and other local languages, I suggest that this musical language embodies a culture politics that prioritizes the pan-ethnic national over the ethnic. To put it differently, I propose that the lyrics and performances of mbalax and jolof rap artists foreground symbols of a collective Senegalese national identity, as well as a response to the postcolonial challenges of national integration. Grounded in the theories of nationhood, modernity, and cosmopolitanism, this dissertation argues that popular music, as a cultural element, can have impact on the grassroots processes of nation building, especially in a postcolonial context. Approaching Senegal’s mbalax and jolof rap musics as such, I study both genres as collective (entertainment) symbols through which artists seek to reconcile the Islamic with the non- Islamic, the local with the foreign, with a tendency to blur local ethnic boundaries. Along 4 these lines, I have studied mbalax and jolof rap as two distinct – but dialogically related – musical forms around which popular musicians construct and circulate narratives of collective identity, pluralism, and national solidarity. In addition, I analyze mbalax and jolof rap as synthetic musics, because the compositions of both blend local elements with foreign imports. I suggest that this creative synthesis is what defines Senegal’s musical modernity and constitutes the artistic representation of a hybridized Senegalese postcolonial identity marked by an encounter between local black culture, Islam, and Western influence. 5 DEDICATION To my beloved and very patient wife, Aminata, Abdoul Aziz, my son and shaykh at the same time, And to all Senegalese artists musicking for empowerment 6 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS As I reach this stage in my doctoral studies, my thoughts go to a person who has significantly marked my academic career: Dr. Steve Howard, from the School of Media Arts & Studies, has been a tireless mentor and adviser. Your dedication to my work and your constant presence during extremely difficult times speak to me like those of a father. On a day of May 2011 is when we first met in Athens (Ohio). Then a Fulbright scholar serving at Bluefielod State College (West Virginia), I drove down to meet with you in Athens for an admission interview to the African Studies program. You have remained close ever since. You have guided me, advised me, and taught me the way to seek academic success. In December 2016, when my doctoral chair Dr. Andrea Frohne was forced to take a medical leave, you offered your Samaritan hand. And today, you made it possible for me to defend my dissertation in a timely manner. Dr. Howard, it was a blessing to get to know you, and I lack the words to express all my gratitude to you. This dissertation came true also because several people invested their invaluable time and work into my modest person. My chair Dr. Andrea Frohne is one of them. Since I got into Ohio University’s Interdisciplinary Arts doctoral program in 2013, you have tirelessly guided and encouraged me into the research path I chose. Today, I also thank you for accepting to sit in my committee, despite your ongoing state of recovery. I am very grateful to my two other committee members. Dr. Field has been a very dedicated reader of my work. Since my years of doctoral coursework, your input has always been constructive in my research and writing endeavors. Dr. Loren Lybarger, from Classics & World Religons, has been of great support. You are a teacher of mine. You did not only 7 accept to sit twice in my graduate committees – MA and PhD – but also you have always been promptly responsive when I needed references. I am very grateful to all of you. My sincerest gratitude to the excellent faculty at the Ohio University School of Interdisciplinary Arts. Through your seminars, final paper feedbacks, and constant academic advising, each one of you has significantly influenced and supported my doctoral research in one way or another. Drs. Brandon Kendhammer from Political Science, Assan Sarr from History, and Africanist librarian Araba Dawson have been supportive along the way. Your availability to provide useful advice, recommendation, and support cannot go unmentioned. This dissertation is also heavily indebted to research institutions that I visited during fieldwork in Senegal. Those include IFAN, the libraries at Cheikh Anta Diop University’s Arabic and French departments, and the archives of Senegal’s Daniel- Sorano National Theater. My research on Senegalese Sufi literatures has received invaluable support from Arabophone and non-Arabophone Islamic scholars based in the US, Dakar, Tivaouane, Touba, and Kaolack (Senegal). Among them are Moustapha Ndiaye, Malick Fadiera, Mouhamed Diop, as well as several others unlisted. Finally, I am very thankful to the Senegalese musicians and cultural actors who accepted to answer my questions and allowed me to see their shows (and rehearsals) several times. Dokta Soom, Simon, Fou Malade, and Malal, have been great links from whom I met extremely resourceful informants. Director of Senegal’s Ensemble lyrique traditionnel, Mary N. Ndione, has been very generous to allow me access to the local archive at Sorano as well her resourceful fellow (male and female) band members. 8 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... 6 List of Figures ................................................................................................................... 10 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 11 Research Methodology: Engaging with Senegalese Popular Music ............................ 14 Questions and Arguments of the Research ................................................................... 24 Background of the Study .............................................................................................. 27 Islam and its Impact on Modern Senegalese National Culture ..................................... 29 Popular Music, Islam, and the State in Modern Senegal .............................................. 35 Mbalax, Jolof Rap, and the Issue of Praise-Singing ..................................................... 41 Representing Islam in Senegalese Recorded Music ..................................................... 45 Postcolonial Nationhood, Cultural Identity, and Pop Music: A Literature Review ..... 51 The Question of Modernity in Mbalax and Jolof Rap .................................................. 58 Chapter Outlines ........................................................................................................... 63 Chapter 1: Modern Tàgg: Praising Senegal’s Sufi Saints as National Icons of Colonial Liberation and Enlightenment........................................................................................... 68 Mbalax and Jolof Rap: Negotiating a Modern Praise Language to Senegalese Sufis .. 71 Dial Mbaye’s “Fawade Wélé”: A Mbalax Praise Song to a Lineage of Tijani Saints . 72 Carlou D: At the Crossroads of Praise Rap and Murid Spiritualism ............................ 87 Julien Jouga’s “Walaay” (1996): A Catholic Choir Praise-Song to Tijaniyya ............. 94 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 96 Chapter 2 – From ‘Mbaxal’ to ‘Mbalax’: A Cultural Genealogy of ‘Taste’ in Modern Senegalese Music ............................................................................................................ 101 Taste as a Cultural Metaphor ...................................................................................... 101 Producing the Metaphor of Taste in Senegalese Music .............................................. 102 The Historical Significance of Synthetic Musical Tastefulness in Mbalax ................ 105 The National(ist) Significance of Synthetic Composition .........................................