Babacar Ndiaye

Independent Filmmaker

Four years ago, in the wake of the Arab Spring, Senegalese rappers and journalists brought the country’s youth out into the streets, leading a massive but peaceful protest against President Abdoulaye Wade. After amending the constitution to introduce a two-term limit, Wade was seeking a third term at the age of 85, arguing the limit didn’t apply to him because it was put in place after he took office.

The movement, known as Y'en a Marre—which translates roughly to “fed up”—mobilized half a million young people to vote, and Wade conceded the election peacefully.

Babacar Ndiaye, whose father is from Senegal, was following the news from Atlanta, where he was finishing up his master’s degree in film and digital production at Georgia State.

“I was fascinated by how young hip hop artists in Africa were changing the whole political landscape through activism in their music,” he said. “I just knew that was a story I had to tell.”

Ndiaye put his French language skills and knowledge of life in Senegal to use, reaching out to rappers on Facebook and Twitter before traveling to West Africa, where he spent a month interviewing people in the hip hop industry and the government.

He was struck by how politically conscious and community-driven Senegalese hip hop artists were. Many rappers reinvest much of their income into their local communities, Ndiaye said, funding extracurricular programs and building youth centers, where they often have personal offices.

“It’d be the equivalent of Jay-Z and Nas opening a Boys and Girls Club in Brooklyn,” he said, “and a kid can go in there any time and expect to sit with them one-one-one and get some advice.”

His project grew to become “More than Music: Senegal,” a short film recently announced as part of the Atlanta Film Festival’s lineup next month.

Ndiaye has worked on projects for clients such as TruTV, Adult Swim and VH1, but West African hip hop remains his passion. He wants to expand on topics he couldn’t fully cover in his short, such as women in hip hop and rapping in Wolof, which belongs to a branch of the Niger-Congo language family. This summer, he’ll fly back to Senegal to shoot a feature-length documentary.

—Erin Crews

PANTHERS SHAPING ATLANTA'S FILM INDUSTRY