00:00Musician, entrepreneur, cultural activist, Sahad Saar.
00:04As part of a movement that's re-envisioning Africa's sound,
00:08his band Sahad fuses Afrobeat, jazz, blues and funk with West African rhythms.
00:14For him, music is pure culture, influencing people and carrying on traditions.
00:20At baptisms there is music. At funerals there is music.
00:25At weddings there is music.
00:27Music is there to celebrate every occasion in Senegalese society.
00:32Music plays a central role in the collective imagination of Senegalese society.
00:42Sahad Saar's music connects the past of his home country with its present.
00:47Following independence, Senegal experienced a period of cultural self-exploration
00:51in the 1970s and 80s known as the Golden Era.
00:55With his latest album, African West Station,
00:59Sahad is hearkening back to that time and celebrating Dakar as the center of this awakening.
01:06Dakar has always welcomed people from all over West Africa and the wider African continent to itself.
01:11And everyone who came brought with them a certain vibe, an energy and a way of thinking about music and
01:18culture.
01:18This makes Dakar a very culturally vibrant city where many influences converge.
01:24Open-minded, wise Muslims, a land of Sufis.
01:28Dakar has something special when it comes to art.
01:30I think it's the city's energetic atmosphere, the people who live there and its history that make Dakar so special.
01:46The album is a love letter to his home city of Dakar, while also casting a gaze at its shadowy
01:52sides.
01:52Sahad sings in Wolof, the most widely spoken language in Senegal.
01:56But he often mixes languages, the way he does sounds.
02:00And he performs this energetic mix on stages in Africa and Europe and at the Stereo Africa Festival, which he
02:06founded in 2022.
02:08It's a place for exchange, diversity, new connections and for supporting the African alternative music scene.
02:17He also brings his experience to bear in international partnerships, for example, with the Goethe Institute Dakar.
02:25Marie-Pierre Thiem, who oversees the European Union-funded Africa-Europe Partnerships for Culture program,
02:32consults with him on the development of new festival structures.
02:36So this is a project designed to foster collaboration and cooperation among cultural stakeholders.
02:42Specifically, we're doing this through festivals, since festivals are really where all the players in the cultural ecosystem come together,
02:49whether they're artists, directors or technicians.
02:53That's the gist of the project.
02:57Cool, I think that's really important because here in Senegal we need help, especially with organizing and professionalizing festivals.
03:06Sahad Sar actively supports the increasing professionalization of the West African music scene by opening up spaces as both an
03:14artist and mentor.
03:17He's someone who spiritually gives them the tools to understand the world, something like that.
03:25For me, he's just a friend, a brother, a musician.
03:33Sahad Sar wants to forge connections and build and strengthen self-determined independent networks.
03:39He aims to counterbalance the dominance of the wealthy North and to encourage young people in Senegal to stay and
03:45use their energy to help develop their homeland.
03:47As someone with a strong interest in social and political issues, he is convinced that music can have a profound
03:54impact on people.
03:58We saw it with hip-hop music.
04:00They exported American culture through music.
04:03And today we find ourselves in a world where many young people around the globe want to move to the
04:09United States and want to be like Americans because they've used music as a tool of colonization, so to speak.
04:17So, we know that music truly has unlimited power.
04:22And through music we tell our stories and share our histories.
04:26We share our cultures and traditions.
04:29So, being based here in Senegal or in Africa, if we want people to have a different perspective, a different
04:35understanding of culture in Africa, that happens through music and culture.
04:42Sahad Sar's most powerful language is music.
04:45Through it, he's helping to strengthen people and his home of Senegal.
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