Baaba Maal is a Senegalese singer and guitarist born in Podor, on the Senegal River. His father was a fieldhand and, as such, Maal was expected to become a fieldhand as well; however, he devoted himself to learning music from his mother and from his school's headmaster. He went on to study music at the university in Dakar before leaving for postgraduate studies on a scholarship at Beaux Arts in Paris, eventually becoming quite famous in Africa.
