--> Me with Gallas Niang -->
Backstage at Yousou N'Dour's Club Thiossane, Dakar, Senegal

Gallas is one of Dakar's finest drumset players and has worked with Youssou N'Dour for a long time. Gallas was very nice and showed me some great stuff. (Unfortunately, we're looking at the wrong camera!?!) Back

<-- Incredible singer, Baaba Maal <--
with his band.

Those guys to his left and right are playing sabar drums. Sabar drums are played with a bare hand and one stick. These boys are smokin'! The guy in the back is playing a kora, a beautiful, but strangely-shaped stringed instrument. Back

--> Wrestlers with their drummers -->
posing for a photo

The drummers were playing "Mbalax" (the style covered in the upcoming Book Three) rhythms to inspire and mimic the wrestler's moves. Back

<-- Cassette stalls <--
in Dakar, Senegal

Cassettes are about $2.00 (U.S.) each. Back

--> The "Door of no return" -->
on Goree Island off the coast of Senegal.

Many Africans were torn from their families and held prisoner at this way station before they were shipped off to the new world to be sold as slaves. When I look at this picture, I think of how afraid they must have been. Back