El Hadj N'Diaye's mother comes from the Matam region in the far north of Senegal, near the border with Mauritania. His father comes from the extreme south, the Cassamance region, where Mande people have fought an on-and-off independence struggle for decades.

In between N'Diaye's two ancestral homes lies the sliver-like nation of Gambia and the Senegal Wolof majority with its center in the crowded, frenetic capital Dakar. Since childhood, N'Diaye has faced the complex task of balancing all of these cultural realities. As a boy, he sold cola nuts in Dakar's Thiaroye market. But he went on to study economics at Cheikh Anta Diop University. Ultimately, it became clear that arts were his true calling, and in addition to his musical career, he went on to act in two important films: "Camp de Thiaroye" and "Guelwar" by the celebrated Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembène.

Senegal's El Hadj N'Diaye has created a new style somewhere between protest songs and traditional music. Accompanying himself on guitar and harmonica, he sings about the ravages of urbanization, AIDS, street peddlers and the skin-bleaching creams that young girls use. His songs focus on the burning issues of the day with the help of metaphors and proverbs from the Senegalese oral tradition. —Courtesy Calabash Music