Senegalese polymath Tidiane Thiam released the album Africa Yontii in May 2024 on the fabulous Sahel Sounds label.
Twelve months later, Sahel Sounds issued a second single and video for Néené Africa. The visuals mix footage of Tidiane with archive mobile shots of Pethity, a village in Fouta-Toro, the same region where Tidane lives.
Pulaar is a dialect of the Fula language spoken by the Fula and Toucouleur peoples in the Senegal River valley and surrounding regions, particularly in Senegal, Mauritania, Gambia, and Guinea.
Africa Yontii is a Pulaar phrase that translates to “Africa, It's Time”.
"It’s time that Africa changes," Tidiane explains further. "It’s time our leaders change. Everything that happens in Africa is extraordinary. We have everything: water, earth, sun, fields of oil, gas. We have all this in Africa, but Africa is still poor. It’s time we change our way of thinking. It’s time for Africans to take their destiny into their own hands. If not, others will take it.”
The beautifully intricate, disarmingly gentle sounds that emerge over the nine instrumentals on Africa Yontii may at first seem at odds with the strength of the message.
Yet, it called to mind a place I worked nearly thirty years ago, and a Chief Executive who used to advocate mental gardening. It was the mid-late 1990s and I didn't really get on board with the concept; my equivalent up to then had been sticking on an ambient/chill out album and getting out of my head, not into my head.
Since then, I have a better understanding of where he was coming from, and whilst I still haven't embraced it in my life, Tidiane Thiam's music resonates with me for similar reasons.
Listening to Africa Yontii isn't about escapism, it's more about allowing the listener to create a mental space - a plot of land, if you like - to plant seeds, nurture them and help them to grow. Only in this case, those seeds can be manifesting change, shaping and steering destiny on a personal level or, in the case of Africa Yontii, an entire continent.
If, on the other hand, you think the last four paragraphs and 184 words were a load of old bollocks, I am certain that you will not have the same opinion of Tidiane Thiam's album and music in general. Truly a thing of beauty.
