Video: NDAM is Glory in Wolof

Baay Souley is not a musician, but knows about NDAM and transmission. In the clip above, he explains the concept. NDAM is Wolof for Glory, la Victoire, Success, Reward. It’s what we all seek in one way or another through our mind-bogglingly specific domains in the knowledge-economy. NDAM is right up there with FUN and BEAUTY: all good things, all totally elusive and fleeting. If NDAM can be thought of as an imprint of greatness, then music is one of nature's designed carriers, a tool to transmit NDAM among people.

Baye Souley is a wise man on a hilltop. It’s a storybook kind of role that he does harder than rendered; he even has the white beard. Baye Souley perched himself on not just any hilltop, his chosen station of wisdom is one with very heavy implications for modern African music and culture on both sides of the Atlantic: Gorée island, a historic hub of the West African slave trade and focal point for modern remembrance.