Welcome to Podor

We woke up early in St. Louis, Senegal, and headed straight to Podor, home of Baaba Maal's Blues de Fleuve festival. It's about a 3 or 4 hour ride due east on a nicely flat paved road, hugging the coast of Mauritania. Along the route the landscape is fairly bare and dusty, dotted with baobab trees that were just starting to get their leaves. The wide-open road was a welcome relief from the congestion of Dakar and St. Louis.

Along the way we passed town after town. They all looked fairly similar: Collections of mostly unpainted small cinderblock buildings, goats, and people near the road selling bananas, peanuts, and other provisions. But when we got to Podor, we knew it was Podor. From the road, Podor is larger and more developed than the other towns, located just east of the big cell phone tower. The big tip off, though, is that in Podor, everywhere we looked, we saw Baaba Maal's name, mostly in large handwritten letters. Later in the weekend, I even saw horses painted with his name on them.

Baaba Maal grew up here. He was born into a family of fishermen, so the story goes, and was blessed with an unusually clear singing voice. In a land rich in tradition, it is difficult to turn your back on your family metier. Even more difficult is getting accepted into a profession you weren't born into. In Baaba Maal's case, becoming a singer meant joining the class of griots. He worked long and hard to become accepted, studying in Dakar and in Europe.

His big breakthrough had come, though, when an influential griot, Mansour Seck, took him under his wing. As a young man, Maal toured west Africa with Seck, absorbing rich musical traditions and learning how to perform. The rest is history, as Podor's favorite son has become an international singing powerhouse. All around the globe, people now flock to his concerts, buy his CDs, and enjoy his distinctive musical stylings on the soundtracks to blockbuster movies.

To understand Maal, you need to know Podor. Conversely, to understand this area of Africa, Maal is a good ambassador. Our small group of American and Senegalese friends had finally made it to his hometown, to revel in the festival that Maal would host.

See images of our group in our lodgings in Podor, Senegal here.