Marcel Salem´s biography
Childhood: “midi tiip gnaam”
“Marcel Salem seems to come back from far away…. he is one
of those who begin life with nothing else but their own being”
Natty Dread Magazine
Marcel was born in Mont Roland, a Serere village in the north-west of Senegal, in a family of farmers. He spent his first years
in the company of a little girl, Agathe, as quiet as he was,
playing with the children of his age who used to call him “liga”
(the mute).
What shall we think about this mute child who, at the age of five, pronounced his first words to his older brother as they heard the church’s bell? “midi tiip gnaam” (noon, time to eat)
What a surprise for his brother who had forgotten to give him food while their parents were working in the fields. “Incredible, he is talking!!!”
Marcel would be one of those future- adults who contemplate the world in silence in order to understand and approach it better.
Later on, he couldn’t go to school as many other kids up to now.
As his parents could not afford the 25 francs school fees, Marcel, still very young, had to go and work in the fields with them.
He would learn later to read and write, along the roads of his continent.
He was lulled, throughout those days spent in the fields, by his father’s beautiful voice.
When in the hottest moment of the day, they rested in the shadow before working again, Marcel used to observe and listen to his father, the missal on his knees, reading and singing the Latin psalms he would sing in the church’s choral on Sunday.
A voice he will never forget.
Adolescence
Marcel’s life, at the end of the sixties and beginning of the seventies, is cadenced by the duty to help his family, his passion for sport (soccer), the trainings and the time spent among friends seated around the tape player when they were lucky enough to have one…
The older brothers used to organize parties in Mont Roland. Any opportunity was a good one: August 15, Tabasky “sheep’s party”, weddings, baptisms, harvest´s end…
Everybody gathered: youngsters and elders, Christian and Muslim families, all of them sharing together, as still in the present, those pleasant moments.
It was the time of the yéyés, Claude François, Johnny Haliday and his famous “noir, c’est noir” (black is black). The African music in those days was represented by Myriam Makeba, Bembeya Jazz and the singer Demba Camara, the Garage Baobab, Xalam etc…
“There was no electricity at that time, but we were resourceful and we used to listen to vinyl records connecting the record player 504 on a car battery.”
Marcel and his friends caught Radio Gambia, which beamed in English all that was done in terms of music in the English-speaking countries. They discovered funk, rhythm’n blues, soul music, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Nina Simone and the first album of Jimmy Cliff, « …brought back home from god knows where by an older brother» , Hard road to travel .
On his way to town
“Marcel’s story is the story of those thousands of youngsters who challenged fatality in order to make their own way hoping for fortune to give relief and comfort to their family”
Info7, Dakar
Will of independence… Like many other young people, Marcel, about 18 years old, left his village for the town and his thousands of little jobs.
Early in the morning on Rufisque’s market, for a few pennies, he would help women to carry their products.
As he came from the countryside, he was known to be good gardener and was trusted with the care of fields and orchards (lemon trees, mango trees, papaya trees).
At the same time, he discovered boxing with an older brother and trained intensely. Noticed for his hitting strength and agility, Father Boyer made him join the Jeanne d’Arc club of Rufisque.
He would be a successful non-professional from lightweight to welterweight.
28 victories out of 32 fights.
Blows given, blows received but still without a penny!
Between thousands of small jobs and boxing practice, Marcel was a faithful regular of the rehearsals of a very popular band in Rufisque, the “taboo orchestra” of Ali Jaber.
“I remember, says Marcel Salem, at that time a brother brought back from the USA the first album of Bob Marley with Peter Tosh and the Wailers.”
The “taboo orchestra” singer, Mamadou Faty would be the first to give Marcel a microphone and to push him on stage.
First stage….. First jitters
But duty didn’t stop, and being a respected Serere, he had to go back to Mont Roland.
During winter (June to September), he was helping his parents and others villagers.
They used to work in the fields together. After the family piece of land, they passed on to the neighbour’s one, the work was divided by age group. From sowing to harvest everything was done in community.
After such work and effort, there was a time for joy and relaxation, the time of festivities.
Anthems (mgamba), dances (mbilim) and wrestling fights are common during the harvest period. The Serere used to be prestigious warriors and might be at the origin of this secular sport, accompanied by songs of bravery and challenge.
Whatever the fighter, Serere or Wolof, each one had his song and supporters.
Marcel remembers the constant rhythm of the tam tams that goes along the fighter’s dance as he enters for the “Bere”.
Those fights occur among general jubilation.
Three months and nine days cannot kill anyone!
Go home, Brothers
You have nothing to do in Dakar
The elders are tired
However hard it is to work the land,
It won’t destroy a Ndut’s son
If you hear my words, return to Mont Roland
It’s our land
Baapa – Carroy 44
The Adventure
I say, who wants to be fortunate
should be hard working
Because all along the way tears
and sweat won’t be lacking
Sonnuna – Carroy 44
In 83, Marcel decided to begin a boxer’s carrier and went to Ivory Coast.
One fight, one defeat.
He did not loose his courage.
A friend of him advised him to continue his carrier in Gabon.
After three months of work for a glazier, he could face his departure to Gabon. It was a long road… He had to cross Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Equatorial Guinea.
During the trip, which lasted several months, he worked for various craftsmen in order to pay for food and travel.
At last: Gabon’s frontier… But the authorities refused to let him enter the country!
Disappointed and broke, he stood in Douala, Cameroon.
Due to the lack of money and training, his physical condition weakened and he had no choice but to abandon boxing.
Having no thoughts in mind but survival, he took the road back home.
The brave men are seeking adventure
They don’t know the world is like
a horde of monkeys
Every man for himself and God for all...
Be brave, brothers, because tomorrow
will be a better day
Sonnuna – Carroy 44
At the end of 85, he was back in Ivory Coast. His former boss hired him again for a 10 000 CFA ($15) monthly salary. Marcel slept on the workshop’s ground and hardly ate.
At night, to forget hunger, he used to wander along the streets and to visit his friend Moussa Doumbouia to “touch the guitar” and play a little before going to sleep on his cardboard bed.
In those days, Abidjan was a real cultural crossroad which used to gather an ambitious and dynamic young population from every place and class, grooving with the Ivorian reggae: Alpha Blondy, Ismaël Isaac and the Keita Brothers, Serge Kassy and Ahmed Faras etc…
“One night, I had a decisive dream…” He saw his father and his friend, the singer Mamadou Faty, telling him to go on stage and sing. He did it without fear. Marcel woke up suddenly and interpreted his dream as a sign….
His father, who had died some time ago, always gave him all his trust and encouraged him in this way.
He made a decision… He would buy a guitar!!!
He wrote his texts on a notebook he keeps until now as a treasure (most songs of the album Carroy 44 were written at that time), he used to cut off newspaper’s articles on every subject, pleasant or revolting, he was interested in.
From then on, inspiration will never leave him.
Why do you stop him in his tracks?
Because his father is a worker
The worker is annihilated
Sadness is the poor´s tailcoat
Aana Sana Sow, I thank you!
Aana, you saved the son of a poor man
Aana Sow – Carroy 44
Inspired by the music from the various countries he passed by, Marcel loves the great Fella from Nigeria, the South-African Hugh Masekela, Manu Dibengo, the star of Cameroon’s makossa but also Miles Davis, BB King, Django Reinhardt…
We cannot forget to mention as well « the mystic man » Peter Tosh, Burning Spear and Marley…
Patience and time run through the longest day
He saved each penny and managed to have his own glazier workshop in Koumassi, an Abdijan district, which allowed him his first demonstration recording.
It would be Reggae roots, the style to which he identifies himself.
Guitar, singing, keyboard, beat box - seven songs among which:Aana Sow, Dusa boss, Carroy, Sonnuna, etc…
Abidjan Version.
Marcel opened a show of the singer Ahmed Fara, who had just won the second prize from the “francophonie” organisation in France.
Everything was going well
He was foreseeing the light at the end of the tunnel, at last.
His little brother Hyacinthe, 28 years old, was a very appreciated mechanic in his home village but decided to join Marcel in Ivory Coast.
Together, they would be able to help even more their family in Mont Roland.
You say he’s your brother !
Why don’t you find a fishing net for him ?
Why don’t you teach him to fish ?
His problems would be less.
Geemumooko – Carroy 44
Eight months after his arrival in Abidjan, Hyacinthe disappeared leaving no trace…
Marcel searched for him in every single place but the town was already big and everything could have happened…
At his workshop, orders were piling up and he could not honour all of them… He searched for his brother everywhere: hospitals, prisons, seaside, bars… the whole day and night. Clients began to leave him… Rent was not paid anymore… He had to close his doors and decided to devote himself to the search of his brother.
He would never find him…
Heart-sick, tired and with an empty belly, he had lost everything.
But what could he do?
Start all over again…
He already knew what sweat blood meant... Never did he loose his faith in God.
Moussa and his cousin Babakar’s friendship comforted him. Before sadness, exhaustion or anger overwhelmed him, he used to play his guitar for his own as well as other’s pleasure.
The return
Marcel sold rice on the market saving up to be able to return to Mont Roland at last
It was time to offer his folks everything an adventurer must bring back for his family after so much time of absence.
But destiny went rough on him…
He began to physically weaken; a mysterious sickness was consuming him and stripping off his strength… Doctors from the health centre did not manage to cure him…
Foreseeing he was going to die, he hoped he could find the strength to go back to Mont Roland to pass away among his folks.
He sold his entire stock of rice to pay his trip and he hardly had enough to endure the five-day-journey back home.
Rolling around his guitar and notebooks, his tall body exhausted but still straight, he finally arrived to his village to regain his mother Yakoume after eleven years far from home; without his brother and with not more than 800 CFA (1$25) in his pocket.
For eleven years I walked the roads
Upon my return, my bag was empty
And it’s full of what I have learnt
and thanks to God
That I will speak.
(...)
You said “don’t listen to him,
he came back empty-handed,
don’t listen to him !”
(...)
Answer my call
Don’t turn your back on me
So tomorrow I can account for it !
I’m so sad
May God help me to speak well
and have thoughts worthy of the received gifts.
Hey, Jah !
Deeke te mii – Carroy 44
The return was bitter and he had to face heavy and hostile gazes.
“Who never left home for adventure cannot understand”
Marcel took care of him as he could, got stronger and went back to the fields.
He used to make faggot and picket fence post that he carried over his head to go and sell them on the market.
“Hey Marcel, you´re doing a woman’s job”
This proud, worthy and solitary man was teased.
But I can endure it, I will stick with it,
I will cling on to it
The servant who carries the weight
shall not be laughed at by his brothers
Sooner or later, you will pay for this
So, Brothers, do not despise him
He only does his duty
Don’t steal, my son,
Don’t lie, my son,
Cling on to it and you will see the light
at the end of the tunnel
I’m tired
Sonnuna – Carroy 44
Thanks to a great perseverance and an economical life, he bought a little parcel of land, planted trees and built a little shanty on his own. The 4 square meters hut was enlighted by a candle on the floor.
He used to write and compose, going to sleep very late in the silence of the night.
If we could choose our own destiny
I would choose to be You!
Even though you let me down
My faith forces me to love You
Jah Rasta!
Tillii te so elek – Carroy 44
In Front of the Ocean
Babakar, who had returned from Abidjan, proposed Marcel to join him on the little coast, in the south of the capital Dakar.
Kilometres of long beaches bathed in the sun; in front of the Atlantic, hotels and residences where tourists, people from the surroundings and from Dakar, used to go on vacation. There were also a lot of cool restaurants to eat fish and listen to music along with the people of the village. That was a potential audience and the possibility to make a little money for those who were enterprising.
As soon as he arrived in Saly-Portugal, Marcel came up with the idea of an original acoustic trio.
Marcel Salem: vocals and guitar
Babakar: drums
“Djeli” Sourakata Diébaté: an excellent kora (21 stings harp) player and vocals
The repertoire was mostly composed of French and African popular music along with popular melodies from Senegal. Marcel incorporated his compositions and his “acoustic groovy reggae” style.
This much appreciated trio entertained parties and dinners in the hotels, bars and restaurants of the place.
It was a period of light and unique moments, when foreigner musicians joined them to play till late in the night… From those encounters new friendships where built, with people from all over the world.
During one of his stays in his home village to help his mother in the fields, his precious and faithful guitar broke. This time, it is definitive… No way to repair it!!!
The priest of the village lended his to him.
That was fine, he could leave again…
But the priest took it back at his next return!!!
Marcel, disappointed, did not go back to Saly…
Without a guitar, what would he do there?!…
“Djeli” and Babs insisted for him to come back…
“We´ll find a way…As usual!”
“Yallah Bakhna” God is great, God will find a way…
He came back…Straight to “Poulo”, meeting point of all these people.
He met the wife of his friend Jean Pierre and she was delighted that she could hear him play at night in this same restaurant.
“Sing, yes…But play…!!!”
She insisted: “You´ll play, I´m telling you…”
At night, the restaurant was full…
The trio arrived and the conversations stopped.
Djeli and Babs began the introduction… Marcel, seated without his instrument, felt a bit lost. When he began the couplet, Jean Pierre appeared quielty behind them and delicalty put in front of Marcel a brand new guitar, bought in France. Astonished by this generosity, Marcel had to stop singing in the middle of the song…
He was so touched he could not go on… A felling of joy and happiness filled his heart and he burst into tears.
God is great.
In 1999, he flew to France.
After four years of shows and encounters, he produced and recorded Carroy 44 in Paris. An album with ten songs which gathers all his musical experiences and the quintessence of the lessons of his adventure.
The ten songs of this album were arranged by Michel Lorentz together with top studio players like Michel Alibo (Bass guitar), Philippe Slominiski, Alain Hatot and Jacques Bolognesi (Brass), Hubert Colau ghetto blaster (Drums), Daby Touré (Guitar), Julia Sarr and Valérie Colau (Backing vocals).
During the making of this first album, three superb video clips (Baapa, Lamane, and Dusa boss), included in the CD, were shot in Sénégal, in Marcel´s Serere region, Ndut and Saint-Louis.
“Rythms are reggae rythms coloured by Serere melodies and a mixture of acoustic accents was the way Marcel found to compose a Ndut´s village reggae”
Le Matin – Dakar
From then on, Marcel is playing with his band FAAM NDIAWOR formed by Christophe Laxenaire (keyboards, backing vocals), Theodros yimer (guitar), Cédric Lemonnier (drums), Pierre Collin (bass guitar), Nadia Brini (backing vocals), Julien Daian (saxophone) and Aristide Gonçalves (trumpet). They play usually in Paris clubs such as Café de la Plage, Joko, Opus café, Sentier des Halles, New Morning, Flèche d’Or, etc.
And he is still faithful to an acoustic format that permits him a more intimist repertoire.
2005 – Trip to the United States
2006 – Show’s year
2007 – Back to the studio
“Hey, Marcel…Your notebooks are full of songs for the rest of your life, which we wish long and as beautiful as your soul.
Long life to you Marcel and all the best…”
Faam Ndiawor team.
