Ramatoulaye Ndiaye

Lives and works in Dakar, Senegal

Artist statement

My artistic practice as an acoustic guitarist, singer-songwriter, and cultural researcher is grounded in the living sonic archaeology and oral traditions of West Africa, specifically the coastal Lebou heritage of Rufisque, Senegal. For over twenty-five years, I have investigated the intersection of traditional vocal memory, fingerpicked acoustic guitar phrasing, and collective civic healing. Rather than approaching indigenous rhythms and oral poetry as passive historical archives, my work repositions them as active technologies of contemporary social dialogue and ecological awareness. Growing up in the family courtyard in Dangou Nord (Rufisque), my sonic consciousness was formed by the polyrhythmic ceremonies of Baawunaan (sacred rain and water invocation rites) and Gumbé drumming, cross-pollinated with African-American soul and delta blues. Translating these complex modal structures onto open-tuned acoustic guitars, my compositions strip musical arrangements to their raw, organic essence. Rooted in the southern African ethic of Ubuntu (« I am because we are ») and deployed through my community initiatives (UBUNTU: Art in Action and the Shula Acoustic Tour), my work utilizes the traditional framework of the Acoustic Palabre (Tree of Palaver) to transform performances into egalitarian spaces for reflection, reconciliation, and intercultural exchange. In a globalized world facing ecological urgency and identity fragmentation, my practice demonstrates how ancestral West...

Artwork