On February 14^th, 2007, Nomadic Wax and Sol Productions touched down in Dakar, Senegal to begin their coverage of the contentious and highly anticipated Presidential election.  The goal: to document the political climate, investigate rumors of oppressive behavior on the part of the current administration and see firsthand if the massive youth hip hop movement would be as instrumental in the choice of a leader as they were in 2000. 

In the millennial election, the then opposition leader Abdoulaye Wade overthrew the thirty-year-old Diouf regime with the help of thousands of angry and active rappers, emcees, and hip hop heads.  The end product: Democracy in Dakar, a series of short documentary segments posted almost immediately, available to the world via viral technology sites like Current TV and Brightcove. The first segment jetted to number four on Current TV in less than a week! 

Scheduling up to three interviews per day, the Democracy in Dakar team called on Project Director Ben Herson’s contacts from ten years of Senegalese Hip Hop production.  From underground emcees to the biggest stars in the business, rappers from all the neighborhoods of Dakar came forward enthusiastically to make sure their voices were heard. DID spoke with Rose Skelton of the BBC, Serigne N’Diaye from Suffolk University, Fatou Dieng from the freedom of speech watchdog agency Article 19 and Birima Fall from Senegalese media conglomerate Sud FM and conducted man on the street interviews to provide a well rounded picture of public opinion on the state of the nation and the possible outcome of the elections.  Watch these concise and riveting episodes, all interspersed with performances, videos and new music from the latest in Senegalese hip hop, and check out the newest generation of news/entertainment from Nomadic Wax and Sol Productions. 

Links to Democracy in Dakar videos

Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 6