LABA SOSSEH – The historical legacy of an African musical genius.
By Wassa Fatty

 
 
Part 1

Laba’s background:
Laba Sosseh, the Gambian born Senegal based Salsa music singer died in September this year. Laba, mostly called the king of Salsa music in Africa has joined our ancestors after his journey in this world. His death after a long illness was mourned by many Salsa music lovers the world over, more so in Senegal where he was honoured by the nation. This material is a tribute as well as an assessment of the contributions of the late singer to the development of modern SeneGambian music.

Laba Sosseh was a symbol of the African cultural revival in post colonial Africa. In the African philosophy, symbols do not die. They live on as a source of inspiration. That is why when Africans say a prayer, they usually pray to the spirits of our ancestors and conduct libations at all occasions important for the wellbeing of their communities. 

Laba was born in the Gambia in the late 1930s. He was born in the colonial city of Bathurst, now known as Banjul after independence in 1965. His father came from Senegal and mother from the Gambia. He was born in a family of griots, a traditional institution of singers and keepers of oral history. He started music at an early age. He however defined his path in life early to pursue his future in music. The music he pursued and later popularised became his life and soul in Africa and abroad. The music was and is still call Salsa music. With Laba, one can say that even though he popularised Salsa music in the land of its origin, Africa, he also understood the innovative skills of our ancestors stolen from the continent as slaves to the plantations of the Americas. Without the innovations of the so called slaves, we would not be dancing to Salsa music as it is known today. Since then, Laba worked in the tradition of the Salsa pioneers in Cuba and laid the foundation for modern SeneGambian music. To understand his contributions, one needs to know the history of Salsa music and its development outside of Africa, which I will deal with later in part 2 and 3. Part 4 deals with the roots of Mbalax which can not escape the contributions of the "El-Maestro", Laba Sosseh and the Salsa music...

Young Laba Sosseh was inspired by the Salsa music of the 1940s and 1950s, especially when the songs of Pacheco, Machito, Tito Puente and Tito Rodriguez, among others, began to hit the coast of West Africa. Through these early inspirations, Laba started his musical career in Banjul in the 1950s and even travelled to Cuba at that time to play with leading singers in Cuba. Upon his return in the late 1950s, he played in venues such as the Foyer hall (former French school) in Banjul. As his career began to take off, there were no large venues, halls, proper management and promotional environment to cultivate his talent and advance it further. Out of this frustration, Laba fled to exile in 1960 to Senegal in order to advance his career and the atmosphere was favourable to him in the newly independent Senegal and gave Laba a new sense of optimism and direction he needed. 

Newly independent Senegal embarked on reconstructing its institutions after many years of French colonial rule. Among those national programmes was also the question of cultural revival. It was in this environment that Laba collaborated with the late Pape Secka, a leading Senegalese vocalist and formed the "Star band" in 1960 as a celebration of Senegal’s independence. With Laba sharing the stage with Pape Secka, the "Star band" rose to fame beyond the borders of Senegal and also motivated and ushered in new bands in the late 1960s and 1970s. Among these bands in Senegal were the "Boabab", "Africando", "Super Dymano", the short lived "Takarr-nazzeh", "Number one", "Etoile de Dakar" and individual singers such as vocalists Eric Ndoye, Ouza and others, who all later became great musicians in their own rights. The city of Dakar became the Mecca of Salsa music. No band could survive without playing the good Salsa in Senegal. It was a tense and competitive environment for any potential singer. Good voice was the daughter of quality in this environment. Laba was an inspirational factor for many young singers then, many of whom are household names in the SeneGambia region. In the Gambia too, he inspired the formation of the "Super Eagles band". Infact some of the members of the Super Eagles band such as the late vocalist, Pa Touray and Ousou Njie worked under Laba before his departure to Dakar. In Dakar also, some of the leading singers such as Yousou Ndoure, Alhajie Faye and others horned their careers in his band. 

Salsa music was so powerful that it was infact renamed the "Senegalo-Afro-Cubano" music. Please pay much attention to this period as it was the period that laid the foundation for young Yousou Ndoure and many singers of our time; others such as Baaba Maal, Ismaela Lo or Omar Penn were late comers and may not have experienced the hard road Yousou, Ouza and others travelled to make a breakthrough. Before I go further, it must be clear that one can not deal with the legacy of a musical and cultural giant like Labba Sosseh without an understanding of the rich historical background of the music he committed his life to popularise in the SeneGambian region or Africa in general. Here is that background. 

 
Part 2
Improvisation:
Slavery has robbed Africa of its human resources and dislocated its potential to industrialize. Our African ancestors who were brutally exported as human slave cargoes to the Americas where not nonentities or nobodies as the history books written by Europeans will tell you; but included nobles and people who specialized in various professions. Among those captured and chained to be slaves were doctors, teachers, blacksmiths and goldsmiths, leather specialists, shoemakers, traders, entrepreneurs, technologists, scientists, industrialists, farmers, fishermen, philosophers, engineers, administrators, hunters, poets, singers, dancers, comedians, pregnant women and children of all ages. There were also individuals who specialized in the making of all kinds of musical instruments. All these people were dehumanized on their voyage to the new world created by the Europeans and for the interest of the European ruling elites. Africa’s lost became the fruitful gains of what we now call the Western world.

Our ancestors chained in the slave ships left with no personal belongings to the new world. The only thing they carried with them was their skins, memories, languages, talents, blood and flesh to generate wealth for Europeans. Under any condition, especially in dehumanized conditions, humans may loose their names and language, but they do not forget their history or place of origin. They may not also possess original materials they used for cultural development, but they do have innovative skills to improvise the type of things they left behind under forceful and painful conditions such as slavery. It is in this context that one need to search for the innovative skills of our ancestors in their new environment as slaves to understand the cultural contributions they left behind for humanity. The present day popular Salsa music, like Rumba, Chacha, Blues, Jazz, Soul, Wrap, Ska, Reggae, Calypso, Steel band or even Rock music, you name them; all had their roots from these improvised musical instruments. It was from these musical instruments made in the slave plantations that gave birth to all these music we now call "Western music." What is Western music without the Black presence? The evidence given in Salsa music will support the argument.

Salsa music as it is known today was African in origin. Its origin came from the African musical instruments produced in slave plantations. Many things the slaves were using for their own emotional needs and to establish their own identity were banned by the slave masters. For example the banning of the drums led to the improvisation of steel drums (empty barrels) in the Caribbean. So was the history of other improvised musical instruments produced in the plantations. 

Thus, here are some of the names of the improvised musical instruments below:

Among those improvised musical instruments as narrated by Maureen Turner and Elena Perez Sajurjo of the Institute of Cuban music, where the "Bongoes" (an African name), corruptly called the "Bongocitos" in Spanish. The Bongo or Bongoes are two wooden shells joined together at the middle and the tops covered with leather and produced sounds when struck in the centre. The "Botijuela" is an ordinary container made from yellow clay with an opening at the neck. Its main use was to transport oil or milk from Spain to the Caribbean slave plantations. The slaves improvised the empty containers of Botijuela to drums. The "Claves" (improvised "tamma" or talking drum) (keep the name in mind) was made from the type of hard wood usually used in the construction of boats. It is one inch in diameter and eight inches in length, but it was one of the most dynamic musical instruments made outside of Africa by Africans. It is one instrument that can give all kinds of sounds and has the capability to rise above all other instruments melodically. It can carry or change the rhythm, direct the melody and the steps of the dancers as well. The African "Tamma" does that too. Its usefulness and popularity spread from Cuba to the rest of the Americas and even to Europe. The Cuban music expert, Emilio Grenet, correctly stated that the "Clave" is one instrument that can be adjusted with every type of Cuban melody. The "Conga" (African name) drums or sometimes called the "Tumbadora" ("Tumba", "Tantawo" or "Kutiro" in Mandinka. "Jembe" in Wollof), is made from a shell or hollow wood. To play it, it is held between the knees or hung from the shoulders. The "Cobwell" or called in Spanish ‘Cencerro,’ is made from hard metal to give or provide strong sounds when strike with a metal stick. The "Guiro" is mostly a rhythmic instrument made from large dried gourd ("Mirangwo" in Mandinka), with several lines carved on the sides and a hole in the back. It can create different vibrations of sounds depending on what is strike against it; wooden or metal stick. The "Marimbula," is a wooden box with a circular opening which serves as the sound hole. It has sheets of metal of different sizes fastened over an opening and produce different sounds when played with the finger tips. It was made by Africans in Santo Domingo or Haiti. The "Quijada" was among the earliest improvised instruments the Spanish slavers called "primitive" instrument or "jawbones" in Louisiana, USA. As the slave masters banned the wooden clapping sticks ("Wooleh-wumaw" in Jola) in the plantations, slaves improvised this instrument with large animal jawbones such as donkeys or horses. When the upper and lower jawbones are strike together, it produces various sounds and it became an instrument that accompanies the clave instrument. The "Timbales" are drums of different sizes ("Bukarabu" in Jola). It could be two or more drums normally placed according to sizes to give different sounds. It gave life to rumba music for that matter and became a very vital instrument in Latin American music to this day. 

 
Part 3
The roots of Salsa:
The "clave" instrument produced its own rhythm which predates Salsa music. It was first known as the "Cuban son" music, but has its origins from the slave plantations of Santo Domingo or Haiti. Haiti became the first land liberated by Black people in 1803, when the greatest Black military genus, Toussaint L’ Ouverture, led a twelve year military campaign against the Spanish, British and French military powers and defeated all of them to liberate his people from slavery. The beauty of this Black revolt was the defeat of the greatest military commander in European history, Napoleon Bonaparte, in 1803. That military defeat forced the rich French slave owners to abandon their plantations in Haiti and fled to the Oriente province in Cuba with some of their African slaves, who managed to carry some of their improvised musical instruments with them.

The impact of these improvised instruments brought by the African slaves was felt all over Cuba within a short period. The most popular form of dance among the African slaves in Cuba was what was then called the "Danzon," which has been popular since 1879. In 1917, when the world was captivated by the Russian revolution, in Cuba there were changes taking place too at the cultural level instigated by African slaves. It was in that year that a new musical style called the "Cuban Son" music and dance styles was born and immediately dethroned "Danzon" as the Cuban nation’s favourite source of entertainment. It was the introduction of the "Clave" musical instrument in the Cuban "Danzon" which altered the rhythm to something more sophisticated melodically and made the style of dancing more stylistic. The "clave" instrument removed the music from streets to the orchestra dancing halls and made it more appealing to the middle and upper classes of the Cuban society and laid the grounds for Cuban music industry to become a creative economy as a result prior to the 1959 political upheavals.

As the "Cuban son" music expanded its popularity into other parts of Latin America, it absorbed other improvised African musical instruments such as the "Bongoes", "Marimbula", "Quijada", "Cowbell", "Timbales", "The Guiro" as earlier mentioned, into the music and enrichened it further. The dance steps had directions and became quicker and adding to it the "Palmados" or the Flamenco hand claps. However, the addition of the "Maracas" or the guitar sent the Cuban music to another dimension of cultural progress, despite the political repression of the Dictator, Batista. The popularity of Cuban music the world over was recognized by many and Havana became the heaven for many Latin American music aspirants and dancers to learn their trade and orientation. To graduate as a professional Latin musician, the dance halls and musical venues of Havana, where the "Cuban son" was dominant, was the places to get inspirations from.

By 1920, "Cuban son" music and dance has reached its peak. It was in that year also the great Gambian born Pan Africanist, Edward Frances Small, led the workers strike against colonial repression and exploitation, which shook British colonialism to its roots throughout West Africa and laid the foundation for modern politics in the Gambia. It was at this period too that the "Cuban son" music arrived in the Gambia and other parts of West Africa brought by Seamen, travellers, soldiers from the First World War and some of the West Indians and Black Americans returning back to the land of their ancestors. What entered the West coast of Africa as music from Cuba was not "Cuban son," but Proto-Salsa music or early forms of Salsa. Because prior to 1930, Cuban musical giants such as Ignacio Pinero began to compose "Son" music in the written form which changed it from its purest form relying solely on "Clave" and "Bongo" rhythms, he instead added the trumpets as the dominant instruments in the music. Ignacio Pinero’s composition of his popular music in the 1930s called the "Echale Salista" changed the "Son" music to Salsa. It was this type of music that captured the mind of young Laba Sosseh in the 1940s. 

The Salsa music took the world by storm and never stops to inspire to this day. What made it more attractive was the style of dance known as the "Mambo" dance it ushered into the dancing arena. (Understand that the dance was called "Mambo" because the European slave masters thought the dance was childish or foolish. The word derived from Mandingka) The "Mambo" dance in turn popularised Salsa music to a larger global audience, specifically in Africa where the people easily related to it. By the 1950s, the "Mambo" dance has conquered New York City and leading Latin American musicians and dancers moved to New York’s Palladium on Broadway. Among them were the Salsa greats such as Machito, Millie Donay, Cuban Pete, Tito Puente, Tito Rodriquez and the best known dancers such as Horacio Riambu, Joe Vega and Andy Vasquez, to name few and Salsa was turned into a formidable sound the world over.

Now what is the legacy of Laba Sosseh?.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Part 4

The Legacy-
The historical essence of Laba Sosseh’s contribution to African music was achieved through Salsa music. He was a leading giant in the popularity of Salsa in post independent Africa. If anything, he was the most committed individual to bring home the music produced from the improvised musical instruments our ancestors invented in the slave plantations back to the land of their origins, Africa. Secondly, his creativeness in the Salsa music scene allowed it to live longer in Senegal because he made it accepted, respected, appreciated and owned by the people. It should not therefore be surprising that Salsa was rechristened as the "Senegalo-Afro-Cubano" music. What this indicated is that Senegal has succeeded in claiming ownership of what our African ancestors have created in the midst of their social and economic misery in the slave plantations. No African country has done so and credit must therefore be given to Senegal. 

When Senegal gained independence in 1960, Laba Sosseh was the cultural icon of the newly independent state that was in search of itself. Senegal was struggling to rebuild its national institutions after centuries of French colonial miseducation and exploitation. One important area the newly installed Senegalese government under the leadership of the late intellectual Head of State, President Senghore, never failed to neglect was the cultural sector. Senghore’s government prioritised Senegal’s cultural revival intellectually, politically and socially. For Senghore, without cultural consciousness, no society can advance. Again, for Senghore, culture can not be isolated from historical awareness. With such state ambitions for national development, Senegal became the fertile ground Laba wanted to promote and popularised the Salsa music. The Gambia, the land of his birth could not offer him that while still under British colonial rule.

To sustain any type of music for decades in any society is not an easy task for any band or singer, because the music must have certain characteristics to survive long: The music must be appealing to be accepted; it must have quality; it must satisfy emotions; it must carry messages of any type; it must be a national pride and identity; it must express problems in all forms; it must have feelings to sooth emotional pains; it must be responsive to changing situations and above all it must create its own creative economy to survive. Laba Sosseh carried these burdens as a musician for more than a decade to give Salsa music a long live in Senegal and other parts of Africa. This was an achievement. 

Anything that has the potential to develop with proper nourishment will develop to its full maturity. Maturity is the final climax for all things human and the rest is to blossom through changing processes in order to continue existence or if not to wither out of existence. This is what cultural history taught humanity in its definition. Human culture is nothing other than creativity and production for the survival of the future generations. Salsa music was not immune from this natural process of existence and it has to produce something more sophisticated in order to live on. Whatever later emerged out of Salsa, Laba Sosseh will always be the source historically in the Senegalese situation and experience if one looks at the historical links and continuity of our music.

By the 1970s, Salsa has reached its climax in Senegal. It also coincided with the departure of Laba from Senegal to Abidjan, Ivory Coast, and then to America, where he won gold awards for his music. Laba did not return to Senegal again until in the 1990s and found the musical scene so changed that he could not recognize the city he once ruled as a vocalist. But he did not realized that what he left behind musically was also responsible for the emergence of the new sounds he heard in the city of Dakar and the little boys he mentored in his "Star band" have matured to dethroned him as the ruler of the music scene. Salsa did not die, but side lined to the periphery of the music entities. He was welcomed back highly in Senegal and his song, the "El Maestro" became an instant hit in Senegal and abroad, but he however could not push Salsa up again as the dominant music as the new citizens of the Senegalese population are now inhaling different musical oxygen. 

How did these changes occur in the Senegalese music environment?

The changes that revolutionized the SeneGambian music have both internal and external factors and I will come to that later. The departure of Laba to the Americas in the 1970s left a gap that was filled by the bands that emerged at that period and mentioned earlier in part 1. These bands in their own ways have produced classics that are still sending minds back to memory lane anytime they are played. Among these classics was "Esta China" by Etoile de Dakar. "Gruantanamero" by Number one. "El- Hombre Misterioso" by Eric Ndoye. "Viva Number one" and "Gonsado" by Number one. Most of these Salsa songs were sung in Spanish and some in Wollof. But young Yousou Ndoure’s song, "Tially", even though he was neither the original singer nor the leading vocalist of any band, signalled him as a future potential vocalist. The other classics included songs like the "El-Carretero" by Etoile de Dakar. "Afromanicero" by young Alhajie Faye and Laba Sosseh and the early songs of the late Abdoulai Mboob and Ouza were part of the scene. What all these songs have in common was that they were all Salsa music, but with something different. Watch it out as the story reveals itself.

The factors that contributed to the changes were two fold: Internally in Africa, there was crisis as the promises of the independence struggle did not materialize. Radical youth movements emerged in many parts of Africa to challenge the "Neo-colonial" status of post independent Africa. There were also the anti-colonial struggles in Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea Bissau and also the struggle against the brutal apartheid regime, which all one way or other, galvanized the radical consciousness of the African youths. What further aggravated the situation in most African countries started back in the 1960s with the killing of Lumumber in the Congo, the overthrow of Nkrumah in Ghana and the assignation of Cabral in the early 1970s on the instigation of external forces who saw radical leaders as a threat to their interest and installing puppet regimes in their place. Extenally, the Black Power and Civil Rights movements struggling for Social Justice coupled with the assignations of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King were equally seen as the same efforts of imperialism to subdue the Black race. The youths began to politicize the internal situation of their countries and protests and mass demonstrations took place in the streets of many capitals, including Senegal and the Gambia. In Dakar it led to the arrest and death of a student leader, Blonde Diop. In Senegal, no musical group or band picked up the demands of the youths artistically to sympathise with or use it to sensitise their grievances against the state. The only one who came close to expound that was Ouza who never shy away from controversy, especially when it involves the ruling classes. He was not given name the "Bob Marley of Senegal" for nothing.

However, in the Gambia the situation was different for some reason. The "Super Eagles band" had a better grasped of the youth frustration and sympathised with them openly. When the band left the Gambia for a European tour in the early 1970s, it turned out to be a disaster financially for them in London. The late Fela Kuti and Osi Bissa already had massive impact on the African Diaspora hungry for an African identity and social equality in Europe and America. The radical Jamaican music, reggae, has already gained momentum and for an African band to come and play European music to mostly Black audience was seen as a cultural confusion. The shows were poorly attended afterwards and it was reported that the band members could not even afford to pay for their return tickets home and some where left behind and still stranded in London. From this experience abroad and the boiling anger of the radical youths at home in demand for radical changes and continental unity, the "Super Eagles band" responded by changing its name to "Infang-Bondi" and the "Afro-Manding" beat was born and became the most innovative music in the Gambia and gave the country an identity and pride. It ushered in the formation of the "Guelewarr" band fronted by young Musa Ngum and individual singers such as Abdul Corr.The "Afro-Manding songs such as "Xaaleli-Africa" (Children of Africa), "Ovareier" (working class) and "Change the system" have entered the annals of Pan African history as among the most dynamic songs in post independent Africa. 

The Gambia could not nurture the development of the "Afro-Manding" beat due to poor marketing and promotional skills. Besides "Infang- Bondi" shows were held in poor and small venues in Banjul, weekend beach parties or shows in other parts of the country. The music did not grow to build up a creative economy to survive and diversify itself. To survive, like Laba Sosseh, Afro-Manding beat fled to exile in Senegal to escape stagnancy. Its arrival also coincided with changes in the Salsa music. The changes occurred early in 1970s when the "Tamma" or talking drum musical instrument was introduced into the Salsa music and it never became the same again. With "Afro-Manding" beat knocking at the doors; Salsa music faced a challenge in the absence of the "El-Maestro," Laba Sosseh. To understand these changes, one need to go back to the classics mentioned earlier and will notice that either from the middle or at the end; the "Tamma" becomes instrumental in the music and changes the dancing style or techniques to "Ndaka" dance form. The similarities with the way Salsa emerged after the 1920s, when the "Clave" musical instrument was introduced into the "Cuban son" music became clear at this juncture. In the case of Salsa, the introduction of the "Tamma" into the Salsa music laid the seeds that germinated to what it is now known as MBALAX music and "Afro-Manding" beat gave the signals to this opportunity and created the necessary conditions for its emergence. In all situations, changes have to be explained and here it is. 

The factors that led to the emergence of "Mbalax" varied, but some of it can be attributed to the favourable conditions available from the early to the mid 1970s. "Afro- Manding" beat was already hot in the Gambia and at the same time in Senegal, Salsa was taking a different dimension. The guitar on some occasions would inject the "Ndaka" rhythm in the Salsa tunes and with the addition of the "Tamma" armpit drum the music never look the same again. The rise of the late Senegalese vocalist in the early 1970s, Abdoulai Mboob, was also a major factor, because despite the fact that his music was Salsa Music, he mostly sang in Wollof, rather than Spanish, allowing the "Tamma" drum to adjust Salsa music closer to home. The new situations in the continent in terms of national identities that can relate to something African within national boundaries, which the social movements brought to the political landscape, was also instrumental. 

For example, the "Afro-Manding" beat was associated with the tiny Gambia; the Congolese music was associated with the Congo; "Afro-Juju" beat with Nigeria; "Chimorenga" music associated with the independence struggle of the then Rhodesia (Zimbabwe); there was something musically associated with Mali (Rail Band); Guinea Conakry (Bembeya Jazz Band) and the anti-apartheid songs of Masekela and Mariama Makeba associated with South Africa. In Senegal, there was nothing that was Senegalese music. Salsa was popular and adopted; it was however more associated with Cuba and Latin American countries than Senegal. Therefore, the need for change for something national was more prevalent in Senegal than in many West African countries. The young Senegalese musicians did not look far to create what was lacking musically in Senegal. The Gambia is just a border away and some of them such as Ouza, Yousou Ndoure and others visited the Gambian musical scene either to play or learn about the new changes. They saw the "Afro-Manding" beat at its early developmental stage and gained the insight, idea and vision of what was to be done. 

Young Yousou Ndoure had a better grasp of the necessity to change than many of his contemporaries. Everything has been done with the Salsa music locally and there was still something alienating in it and that was the Spanish language. The end of "Etoile de Dakar" in the late 1970s and the formation of "Super Etoile de Dakar" could be credited for the new development. The tense battle between Yousou Noure and Alhajie Faye after the break up of the first "Etoile" band had fundamental effects on the Senegalese music history. The era of "Mbalax" arrived and every band in existence in Senegal were forced to convert to it and those emerging do not have go through the difficult road that Yousou, Ouza, the late Pape Secka, Alhajie Faye, Gomez, the late Lai Mboob and the other great pioneers experienced. "Mbalax" today is a national pride. It has created its own creative industry and economy. It has expanded into other types of "Mbalax" such as "Salsa Mbalax", "Rock Mbalax", "Jazz Mbalax", "Reggae Mbalax", "Wrap Mbalax" (‘Tassu’ in Wollof} "Kwassa-Kwassa" (Congolese) ‘Mbalax’ and "Folk Mbalax" among others with a single root.

The conclusion:

To conclude, it is time to lay to rest the argument that "Mbalax" music originated from the Gambia. To say so and believe it is to deny the historic figures such as Yousou Ndoure, Lai Mboob, Ouza and others their contribution to our cultural development. Secondly, to say "Mbalax" is a Gambian product is an arrogant assertion in itself. There is no evidence to support this reasoning other than the old argument that "Afro- Manding" beat came from the Gambia. So what? The pioneers of today’s SeneGambian music were also listening to the popular African Diasporan musics of James Brown, Otis Redding, Roberta Flack, Etta James, Aretha Franklin, Wilson Picket and many others and related to it simply because they could see the link between those music and the traditional ones in Africa. In addition, the "Tamma" was used in the "Afro-Manding" beat and did not make much difference as it did in Salsa. Further more, it must not be forgotten that "Toure Kunda" band of Senegal also were playing the "Afro-Manding" beat.

"Mbalax" and the "Afro-Manding" beat are African music with roots within the same community, tradition and culture in the SeneGambian region. However, both have their own unique qualities specific to them. The longetivity of salsa in Senegal had major influence on the emergence of "Mbalax". I think this is where the role and contribution of the Laba Sosseh came to fruition. We can rest assure that he will never be forgotten in the land of Senegal. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
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