Coordinates: 14°40′01″N 17°23′54″W / 14.66694°N 17.39833°W / 14.66694; -17.39833

Île de Gorée (i.e. "Gorée Island"; (French pronunciation: [ildəɡoʁe]) is one of the 19 communes d'arrondissement (i.e. "commune of arrondissement") of the city of Dakar, Senegal. It is a 0.182 square kilometres (45 acres) island located 2 kilometres (1.1 nmi; 1.2 mi) at sea from the main harbor of Dakar (14°40′0″N 17°24′0″W / 14.666667°N 17.4°W / 14.666667; -17.4).

Its population as of 31 January 2005 official estimates is 1,056 inhabitants, giving a density of 5,802 inh. per km² (15,028 inh. per sq. mile), which is only half the average density of the city of Dakar. Gorée is both the smallest and the least populated of the 19 communes d'arrondissement of Dakar.

Gorée is famous as a destination for people interested in the Atlantic slave trade but relatively few slaves were processed or transported from there. The more important centres for the slave trade from Senegal were north, at Saint-Louis, Senegal, or to the south in the Gambia, at the mouths of major rivers for trade.^[1][2]

History and slave trade[link]

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2008)

Orange and Naussau fort at Gorée island. Coloured engraving, Holland, 17th century

Gorée is a small island 900 metres/3,000 feet in length and 350 metres/1,165 feet in width sheltered by the Cape Vert Peninsula. Now part of the city of Dakar, it was a minor port and site of European settlement along the coast. Being almost devoid of drinking water, the island was not settled before the arrival of Europeans. The Portuguese were the first to establish a presence on Gorée ( circa 1450 CE/AD ), where they built a small stone chapel and used land as a cemetery.

Gorée is known as the location of the House of Slaves (French: Maison des esclaves), built by an Afro-French Métis family about 1780–1784. The House of Slaves is one of the oldest houses on the island. It is now used as a tourist destination to show the horrors of the slave trade throughout the Atlantic world.

Gorée was relatively unimportant in the slave trade. The claim that the "house of slaves" was a slave-shipping point was refuted in 1959 by Raymond Mauny, who shortly afterward was appointed the first professor of African history at the Sorbonne.^[2]

Gorée island (Sénégal)

Probably no more than a few hundred slaves per year departed from here for transportation to the Americas. They were more often transported as incidental passengers on ships carrying other cargoes rather than as the chief cargo on slave ships. After the decline of the slave trade from Senegal in the 1770s and 1780s, the town became an important port for the shipment of peanuts, peanut oil, gum arabic, ivory, and other products of the "legitimate" trade. It was probably in relation to this trade that the so-called Maison des Esclaves was built.^[1]

The island of Gorée was one of the first places in Africa to be settled by Europeans, as the Portuguese settled on the island in 1444. It was captured by the United Netherlands in 1588, then the Portuguese again, and again the Dutch. They named it after the Dutch island of Goeree, before the British took it over under Robert Holmes in 1664.

After the French gained control in 1677, the island remained continuously French until 1960. There were brief periods of British occupation during the various wars fought by France and Britain. In 1960 Senegal was granted independence. The island was notably taken and occupied by the British between 1758 and 1763 following the Capture of Gorée and wider Capture of Senegal during the Seven Years War before being returned to France at the Treaty of Paris.

Gorée was principally a trading post, administratively attached to Saint-Louis, capital of the Colony of Senegal. Apart from slaves, beeswax, hides and grain were also traded. The population of the island fluctuated according to circumstances, from a few hundred free Africans and Creoles to about 1,500. There would have been few European residents at any one time.

In the 18th and 19th century, Gorée was home to a Franco-African Creole, or Métis, community of merchants with links to similar communities in Saint-Louis and the Gambia, and across the Atlantic to France's colonies in the Americas. Métis women, called signares from the Portuguese senhora, were especially important to the city’s business life. The signares owned ships and property and commanded male clerks. They were also famous for cultivating fashion and entertainment. One such signare, Anne Rossignol, lived in Saint-Domingue (the modern Haiti) in the 1780s before the Haitian Revolution.

Schley, Jacobus van der, 1715–1779. Island of Gorée and its fortifications

In February 1794 during the French Revolution, France was the first nation in the world to abolish slavery. The slave trade from Senegal stopped. In May 1802, however, Napoleon reestablished slavery after intense lobbying by sugar plantation owners of the Caribbean départements of France. The wife of Napoleon, Joséphine de Beauharnais, daughter of a rich planter from Martinique, supported their position.

In March 1815, during his political comeback known as the Hundred Days, Napoleon definitively abolished the slave trade to build relations with Great Britain. (Scotland had never recognized slavery and England finally abolished the slave trade in 1807.) This time, abolition continued.

As the trade in slaves declined in the late eighteenth century, Gorée converted to legitimate commerce. The tiny city and port were ill situated for the shipment of industrial quantities of peanuts, which began arriving in bulk from the mainland. Consequently, its merchants established a presence directly on the mainland, first in Rufisque (1840) and then in Dakar (1857). Many of the established families started to leave the island.

Civic franchise for the citizens of Gorée was institutionalized in 1872, when it became a French “commune” with an elected mayor and a municipal council. Blaise Diagne, the first African deputy elected to the French National Assembly (served 1914 to 1934), was born on Gorée. From a peak of about 4,500 in 1845, the population fell to 1,500 in 1904. In 1940 Gorée was annexed to the municipality of Dakar.

Gorée is connected to the mainland by regular 30-minute ferry service, for pedestrians only; there are no cars on the island. Senegal’s premier tourist site, the island was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978. It now serves mostly as a memorial to the slave trade. Many of the historic commercial and residential buildings have been turned into restaurants and hotels to support the tourist traffic.

Administration[link]

Map of Gorée

With the foundation of Dakar in 1857, Gorée gradually lost its importance. In 1872, the French colonial authorities created the two communes of Saint-Louis and Gorée, the first western-style municipalities in West Africa, with the same status as any commune in France. Dakar, on the mainland, was part of the commune of Gorée, whose administration was located on the island. However, as early as 1887, Dakar was detached from the commune of Gorée and was turned into a commune in its own right. Thus, the commune of Gorée became limited to its tiny island.

In 1891, Gorée still had 2,100 inhabitants, while Dakar only had 8,737 inhabitants. However, by 1926 the population of Gorée had declined to only 700 inhabitants, while the population of Dakar had increased to 33,679 inhabitants. Thus, in 1929 the commune of Gorée was merged with Dakar. The commune of Gorée disappeared, and Gorée was now only a small island of the commune of Dakar.

In 1996, a massive reform of the administrative and political divisions of Senegal was voted by the Parliament of Senegal. The commune of Dakar, deemed too large and too populated to be properly managed by a central municipality, was divided into 19 communes d'arrondissement to which extensive powers were given. The commune of Dakar was maintained above these 19 communes d'arrondissement. It coordinates the activities of the communes d'arrondissement, much as Greater London coordinates the activities of the London boroughs.

Thus, in 1996 the commune of Gorée was resurrected, although it is now only a commune d'arrondissement (but in fact with powers quite similar to a commune). The new commune d'arrondissement of Gorée, which is officially known in French as the Commune d'Arrondissement de l'île de Gorée, took possession of the old mairie (town hall) in the center of the island. This had been used as the mairie of the former commune of Gorée between 1872 and 1929.

The commune d'arrondissement of Gorée is ruled by a municipal council (conseil municipal) democratically elected every 5 years, and by a mayor elected by members of the municipal council.

The current mayor of Gorée is Augustin Senghor, elected in 2002.

Island historical sites[link]

Other attractions on the island include three museums, one dedicated to women, one to the history of Senegal and one to the sea. The seventeenth century Gorée Police Station, Gorée Castle and a small beach are also of interest to tourists.

The island is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Archaeological research on the historical occupation of Gorée has been recently undertaken by Dr. Ibrahima Thiaw (Associate Professor of Archaeology at the Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire (IFAN); and the University Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar, Senegal); Dr. Susan Keech McIntosh (Professor of Archaeology, Rice University, Houston, Texas); and Raina Croff (PhD candidate at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut). Dr. Shawn Murray (University of Wisconsin–Madison) also contributed to the archaeological research at Gorée through a study of local and introduced trees and shrubs, which aids in identifying the ancient plant remains found in the excavations.^[3]

Notable residents[link]

• Djembe musician Latyr Sy
• Kora musician and djeli or griot Karamo Cissokho
• France Gall, the French singer, owns a home there

In popular culture[link]

Gorée Island was the Pit Stop for Leg 4 of The Amazing Race 6, and the Slave House itself was visited during Leg 5.

Gorée Island has been featured in many songs, due to its history related to the slave trade.

The following songs have significant references to Gorée Island:

• Steel Pulse - "Door Of No Return"
• Doug E. Fresh - "Africa"
• Akon - "Senegal"
• Burning Spear - "One Africa"
• Alpha Blondy - "Goree (Senegal)"
• Nuru Kane - "Goree"

• The father of French rapper Booba (born Elie Yaffa) is from Gorée. In his song "Garde la pêche" he mentions the island, saying "Gorée c'est ma terre" (Gorée is my land/hometown). Also, in his song "0.9," he says "A dix ans j'ai vu Gorée, depuis mes larmes sont eternelles" (When I was 10 I saw Gorée, since then my tears have been eternal."

In 2007 the Swiss director Pierre-Yves Borgeaud made a documentary called Retour à Gorée (Return to Gorée).

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Camara, Abdoulaye & Joseph Roger de Benoïst. Histoire de Gorée, Paris: Maisonneuve & Larose, 2003

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Gorée

• UNESCO
• Photos of Goree on Flickr
• Mairie de Gorée (French)
• Archaeological Research on Gorée, Rice University
• Gorée and the Slave Trade, Philip Curtin, African Threads, History Net
• George W. Bush's visit

v t e World Heritage Sites in Senegal Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary · Island of Gorée · Island of Saint-Louis · Niokolo-Koba National Park · Stone Circles of Senegambia (with Gambia)

v t e Commune d'arrondissements of Dakar Biscuiterie ·Cambérène ·Dieuppeul-Derklé ·Fann-Point E-Amitié ·Gueule Tapée-Fass-Colobane ·Gorée ·Grand Yoff ·Grand Dakar  ·Hann Bel-Air ·HLM ·Médina Mermoz-Sacré-Cœur ·Ngor ·Ouakam ·Parcelles Assainies ·Patte d'Oie ·Dakar-Plateau ·Sicap-Liberté ·Yoff

This article is written like a personal reflection or essay rather than an encyclopedic description of the subject. Please help improve it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style. (January 2010)

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (April 2010)

Marcus Miller
Miller in Ancienne Belgique, Brussels, Belgium, 2007
Background information
Birth name	William Henry Marcus Miller Jr.
Born	(1959-06-14) June 14, 1959 (age 53) Brooklyn, New York, United States
Genres	Jazz, jazz fusion, rhythm and blues, rock, funk
Occupations	Musician, composer, producer
Instruments	Bass, double bass, guitar, vocals, saxophone, clarinet, keyboards, recorder
Years active	1975–present
Associated acts	SMV, Miles Davis
Website	www.marcusmiller.com
Notable instruments
Fender Jazz Bass

Marcus Miller at Stockholm Jazz Fest 2009

Marcus Miller (born William Henry Marcus Miller Jr., June 14, 1959, Brooklyn, New York) is an American jazz composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. Miller is best known as a bassist, working with trumpeter Miles Davis, pianist Herbie Hancock, singer Luther Vandross, and saxophonist David Sanborn, as well as maintaining a prolific solo career. Miller is classically trained as a clarinetist and also plays keyboards, saxophone and guitar.

Life and career[link]

Early life[link]

Miller was born in 1959 and raised in a musical family that includes his father, William Miller (a church organist and choir director) and jazz pianist Wynton Kelly. By 13, Marcus was proficient on clarinet, piano and bass guitar, and already writing songs. Two years later he was working regularly in New York City, eventually playing bass and writing music for jazz flautist Bobbi Humphrey and keyboardist Lonnie Liston Smith. Miller soon became a first call session musician, gracing well over 500 albums, a short list of which includes Michael Jackson, Herbie Hancock, Mariah Carey, Wayne Shorter, McCoy Tyner, Frank Sinatra, Dr. John, Aretha Franklin, Elton John, Grover Washington Jr., Donald Fagen, Bill Withers, Chaka Khan, LL Cool J, Me'shell Ndegé Ocello and Flavio Sala.

Professional career[link]

Miller at the Paradiso in Amsterdam, 2007

Miller spent approximately 15 years performing as a sideman or session musician, observing how band leaders operated. During that time he also did a lot of arranging and producing. He was a member of the Saturday Night Live band 1978-1979. He wrote the intro to Aretha Franklin's 'I Wanna Make It Up To You'. He has played bass on over 500 recordings including those of Luther Vandross, Grover Washington Jr., Roberta Flack, Carly Simon, McCoy Tyner, Bryan Ferry and Billy Idol. He won the "Most Valuable Player" award, (awarded by NARAS to recognize studio musicians) three years in a row and was subsequently awarded "player emeritus" status and retired from eligibility. In the nineties, Miller began to make his own records, putting a band together to take advantage of touring opportunities.

Miller's proficiency on his main instrument, the bass guitar, is generally well-regarded. Not only has Miller been involved in the continuing development of the technique known as "slapping", particularly his "thumb" technique, but his fretless bass technique has also served as an inspiration to many, and he has taken the fretless bass into musical contexts and genres previously unexplored. The influences of some of the previous generation of electric bass players, such as Larry Graham, Stanley Clarke, and Jaco Pastorius, are audible in Miller's playing. Early in his career, Miller was accused of being simply imitative of Pastorius, but has since more fully integrated the latter's methodology into his own sound.

Miller has an extensive discography, and tours frequently and widely in Europe and Japan.

Between 1988 and 1990 he appeared in the first season and again toward the end as both the musical director and also as the house band bass player in the Sunday Night Band during the two seasons of the acclaimed music performance program Sunday Night on NBC late-night television.^[1]

As a composer, Miller wrote "Tutu" for Miles Davis, a piece that defined Davis's career in the late 1980s, and was the title track of Davis's album Tutu, upon which Miller wrote all the songs with only two exceptions, and one of those was co-written with Davis. He also composed "Chicago Song" for David Sanborn and co-wrote "'Til My Baby Comes Home", "It's Over Now", "For You to Love", and "Power of Love" for Luther Vandross. Miller also wrote "Da Butt", which was featured in Spike Lee's School Daze.

Personal life[link]

Miller has a wife and four children: two daughters and two sons, one of whom, Jon, recently graduated from Columbia University and now works for radio and television host Glenn Beck.

Grammy Awards[link]

Miller has won numerous Grammy Awards as a producer for Miles Davis, Luther Vandross, David Sanborn, Bob James, Chaka Khan and Wayne Shorter. He won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song in 1992, for Luther Vandross' "Power of Love" and in 2001 he won for Best Contemporary Jazz Album for his fourth solo instrumental album, M2.

Miller currently has his own band. In 1997 he played bass and bass clarinet in a band called Legends, featuring Eric Clapton (guitars and vocals), Joe Sample (piano), David Sanborn (alto sax) and Steve Gadd (drums). It was an 11-date tour of major jazz festivals in Europe.

In addition to his recording and performance career, Miller has established a parallel career as a film score composer. He has written numerous scores for films featuring Eddie Murphy, L.L. Cool J, Chris Rock, Matthew Perry, Samuel L. Jackson and others. He composed the musical score for the Chris Rock-created sit-com, Everybody Hates Chris, now in syndication on Nick-At Nite.^[2]

Instruments and gear[link]

He plays a 1977 Fender Jazz Bass that was modified by Roger Sadowsky with the addition of a Bartolini preamp so he could control his sound in the studio. Fender currently produces a Marcus Miller signature Fender Jazz Bass in four- (made in Japan) and five-string (made in U.S) versions.^[3]

Discography[link]

Solo period (1982–present)

• 1983: Suddenly
• 1984: Marcus Miller
• 1993: The Sun Don't Lie
• 1995: Tales
• 1998: Live & More
• 2000: Best of '82-'96
• 2001: M² (2002 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album)
• 2002: The Ozell Tapes - Live 2001
• 2005: Silver Rain
• 2007: Free
• 2008: Marcus^[4]
• 2008: Thunder (as SMV, with Stanley Clarke and Victor Wooten)
• 2010: A Night in Monte Carlo - Live 2009
• 2011: Tutu Revisited - Live 2010
• 2012: Renaissance

Luther Vandross period

• 1983: "Busy Body"
• 1985: "The Night I Fell In Love"
• 1985: "'Til My Baby Comes Home"
• 1985: "It's Over Now"
• 1986: "I Really Didn't Mean It"
• 1986: "Never Too Much"
• 1986: "She Won't Talk To Me"
• 1986: "Give Me the Reason"
• 1987: "Stop to Love"
• 1987: "See Me"
• 1988: "Luther In Love - Megamix"
• 1988: "Any Love"
• 1989: "The Best of Love"
• 1989: "Come Back"
• 1991: "The Rush"
• 1991: "Power of Love / Love Power (Uno Clio & Colin and Carl Remix)"
• 1991: "Power of Love / Love Power"
• 1991: "Power of Love"
• 1993: "Never Let Me Go"
• 1993: "Heaven Knows"
• 1995: "This Is Christmas"
• 1995: "Power of Love / Love Power (The Frankie Knuckles Mixes)"
• 1996: "Your Secret Love"
• 1996: "I Can Make It Better"
• 1998: "I Know"
• 2001: "Luther Vandross"
• 2003: "Dance With My Father"
• 2007: "Love, Luther"

Grover Washington jr period

• 1984: Inside Moves

David Sanborn period (1975–2000)

• 1977: Lovesongs
• 1980: Hideaway
• 1981: Voyeur
• 1981: As We Speak
• 1982: Backstreet
• 1984: Straight to the Heart
• 1987: Change of Heart
• 1988: Close-Up
• 1991: Another Hand
• 1992: Upfront
• 1994: Hearsay
• 1995: Pearls
• 1996: Songs from the Night Before
• 1999: Inside

Miles Davis period (1980–1990)

• 1981: The Man with the Horn
• 1982: We Want Miles
• 1983: Star People
• 1986: Tutu
• 1987: Music From Siesta
• 1989: Amandla
• 2002: The Complete Miles Davis at Montreux

The Jamaica Boys period (1986–1990)

• 1987: The Jamaica Boys
• 1989: The Jamaica Boys II: J. Boys

Film scores

• 1990: "House Party" (featuring Kid & Play)
• 1992: "Boomerang" (featuring Eddie Murphy)
• 1994: "Above the Rim" (featuring Tupac Shakur)
• 1994: "A Low Down Dirty Shame" (featuring Keenan Ivory Wayans)
• 1996: "The Great White Hype" (featuring Samuel L. Jackson)
• 1997: "The Sixth Man" (featuring Marlon Wayans)
• 1999: "An American Love Story"
• 2000: "The Ladies Man" (featuring Tim Meadows)
• 2001: "The Trumpet of the Swan" (featuring Reese Witherspoon)
• 2001: "The Brothers" (featuring Morris Chestnut)
• 2001: "Two Can Play That Game" (featuring Vivaca Fox)
• 2002: "Serving Sara" (featuring Matthew Perry)
• 2003: "Deliver Us from Eva" (featuring L.L. Cool J)
• 2003: "Head of State" (featuring Chris Rock)
• 2004: "Breakin' All the Rules" (featuring Jamie Foxx)
• 2005: "King's Ransom" (featuring Anthony Anderson)
• 2006: "Save the Last Dance 2" (featuring Izabella Miko)
• 2007: "I Think I Love My Wife" (featuring Chris Rock)
• 2007: "This Christmas" (featuring Idris Elba)
• 2008: "Thunder" (featuring Stanley Clark and Victor Wooten)
• 2009: "Good Hair" (featuring Chris Rock as SMV)
• 2009: "Obsessed" (featuring Beyoncé Knowles)

With Dizzy Gillespie

• Closer to the Source (Atlantic, 1984)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Marcus Miller

• Official website
• HoneySoul interview
• Jazzitalia interview
• Jazz USA interview
• The Dude Pit interview
• NPR interview
• Podcast featuring GRP Records and Marcus Miller

Nuru Kane
Nuru Kane at Africa Oyé 2006
Background information
Origin	Dakar
Genres	African Blues Gnawa Griot
Years active	2004–present
Labels	Riverboat Records, World Music Network
Website	www.nurukane.com

Nuru Kane (born Papa Nouroudine Kane) is a Senegalese singer/songwriter who plays guitar, bass and guimbri, a three-stringed Moroccan bass in the band Bayefall Gnawa.

Nuru's debut CD, Sigil, which was released in the UK on March 14, 2006 and the rest of the world on April 24 by Riverboat Records and World Music Network, included griot, gnawa, and blues influences.

His band, Bayefall Gnawa, played at the 2004 Festival in the Desert in Mali, and at the 2006 Africa Oye as well as at the Festival of World Cultures 2010 in Oslo, Norway.

His single "Goree" appears on the soundtract of the 2011 film "The Mechanic" at the graveyard scene.

External links[link]

• Review of "Sigil" in The Guardian

This article on a singer-songwriter is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Ismaël Lô
Lô at Mumes Festival, 2007
Background information
Born	(1956-08-30) 30 August 1956 (age 55) Dogondoutchi, Niger
Origin	Senegal
Genres	Worldbeat Mbalax Afro-pop World music
Occupations	Singer, songwriter, musician
Instruments	Guitar, harmonica
Years active	1970s–present
Labels	Barclay Records Mango Syllart Records
Associated acts	Super Diamono
Website	http://www.ismael-lo.com

Ismaël Lô (also Ismaël Lo) is a Senegalese musician. He was born in Dogondoutchi, Niger on 30 August 1956, to a Senegalese father and a Nigerien mother. Shortly after Lo's birth the family returned to Senegal where they settled in the town of Rufisque, near the capital Dakar. He also plays the guitar and the harmonica.

In the 1970s Lo studied at the School of Art in Dakar. He later joined the popular group Super Diamono, but left in 1984 to start a solo career. Over the next four years Lo recorded five popular solo albums.

In 1990 Lo signed a recording deal with Barclay and recorded in France his sixth solo album, Ismael Lo. Thanks to the success of the single "Tajabone" the album became a hit in the European charts. The album launched Lo’s international career.

Iso was recorded and released in 1994, and also became a success. The album contains soft guitar melodies and traditional Senegalese mbalax. The following year Lo toured in Africa. The compilation album Jammu Africa was released in 1996. The song "Without Blame" is a duet with Marianne Faithfull.

Lo's song "Tajabone" was featured in Pedro Almodóvar's film All About My Mother.

In 2002 he was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor.

His latest album Sénégal was recorded in Dakar, Paris and London. Lo says of it, "Giving this album the title Sénégal was my way of paying tribute to my own country, in recognition of all its gifts to me".^[1]

In 1997 Lo starred in Moussa Sene Absa's film 'Tableau Ferraille.'

The film "Shake Hands with the Devil (2007 film)", about Rwandan Genocide, starts with Lo's song "Jammu Africa".

Discography[link]

• Gor Sayina (1981)

• [A] Yaye Boye Balalma / Gor Saay Na / Ale Lo/ Woudje Yaye -- [B] Tiedo / N'daxami / Sey / Adou Calpe

• Xalat (1984)^[2]

• [A] Xalat / Tali Be (Talibe) / Lote Lo -- [B] Xamul Dara / Mariama / Fa Diallo

• Xiif (1986)

• [A] Alal / Bode Gor / Xiif (Ethiopie Sahel) -- [B] Tiedo / Diouma / Marie Lo

• Natt (1986)

• [A] Ataya / Natt / Djola Kele -- [B] Samag La / Mougneul / Tadieu Bone

• Diawar (1988)

• [A] Jele Bi/ Sophia / Taar Dousey -- [B] Diawar / Jalia / Adou Calpe

• Wadiour (1990)

• [A] Wadiour / Diabar / Souleymane -- [B] Mbarawath / Nene / Tariha

• Ismael Lo (1990)

• Tajabone / Raciste / Ale Lo / Jiggeny Ndakaru / Fa Diallo / Souleymane / M'barawath / Nene

• Iso (1994)

• Dibi Dibi Rek / Nafantav / La Femme Sans Haine / Rero / Senegambie / Baol Baol / Naboou / Nassarane / Wassalia / Setsinala / Khar / Samayaye

• Jammu Africa (compilation, 1996)

• Jammu Africa / Nafantav / Sofia / Tajabone / Raciste / Nabou / Without Blame / Dibi Dibi Rek / Lotte Lo / Souleymane / Samba Et Leuk / Takou Deneu / Khar

• Dabah (2001)

• Aiwa / L'Amour A Tous Les Droits / Biguisse / Amoul Solo / Dabah / Boulfale / Faut Qu'on S'Aime / Africa Democratie / Diour Sani / Badara / Ma Dame / N'Dally / Xalas / Mam

• Sénégal (2 October 2006)

1. "Baykat"
2. "Incha Allah"
3. "Tass Yakar"
4. "Jola"
5. "Taar Dusey"
6. "Manko"
7. "Yaye Boye"
8. "Plus Je Fais Ci, Plus Je Fais Ça"
9. "Mbindane"
10. "Wakhal"
11. "Ouvriers"
12. "Jiguen"
13. "Ma Fille"
14. "Tajabone"

References[link]

External links[link]

• RFI Musique biography
• Official page French bio
• Allmusic link
• Lo discography

François Hollande
Hollande in Nantes (2012)
24th President of France
Incumbent
Assumed office 15 May 2012
Prime Minister	Jean-Marc Ayrault
Preceded by	Nicolas Sarkozy
Co-Prince of Andorra
Incumbent
Assumed office 15 May 2012 Serving with Joan Enric Vives Sicília
Prime Minister	Antoni Martí
Representative	Christian Frémont
Preceded by	Nicolas Sarkozy
President of the General Council of Corrèze
In office 20 March 2008 – 15 May 2012
Preceded by	Jean-Pierre Dupont
Succeeded by	Gérard Bonnet (Acting)
First Secretary of the Socialist Party
In office 27 November 1997 – 27 November 2008
Preceded by	Lionel Jospin
Succeeded by	Martine Aubry
Mayor of Tulle
In office 17 March 2001 – 17 March 2008
Preceded by	Raymond-Max Aubert
Succeeded by	Bernard Combes
Deputy of the National Assembly for Corrèze's 1st Constituency
In office 12 June 1997 – 15 May 2012
Preceded by	Raymond-Max Aubert
Succeeded by	TBD
In office 12 June 1988 – 16 May 1993
Preceded by	Proportional representation
Succeeded by	Raymond-Max Aubert
Personal details
Born	François Gérard Georges Nicolas Hollande (1954-08-12) 12 August 1954 (age 57) Rouen, France
Political party	Socialist Party
Domestic partner	Ségolène Royal (1978–2007) Valérie Trierweiler (2005–present)
Children	Thomas Clémence Julien Flora
Alma mater	School of High Commercial Studies, Paris Institute of Political Studies, Paris National School of Administration, Strasbourg
Signature

Styles of François Hollande
Reference style	Son Excellence (Monsieur)
Spoken style	Monsieur le Président

Styles of François Hollande
Reference style	His Serene Highness
Spoken style	Your Serene Highness

François Gérard Georges Nicolas Hollande (French pronunciation: [fʁɑ̃swa ɔlɑ̃d]; born 12 August 1954) is the 24th President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He previously served as the First Secretary of the French Socialist Party from 1997 to 2008 and as a Deputy of the National Assembly of France for Corrèze's 1st Constituency from 1988 to 1993 and then again from 1997 to 2012. He also served as the Mayor of Tulle from 2001 to 2008 and the President of the General Council of Corrèze from 2008 to 2012.

He was elected President of France on 6 May 2012, defeating the incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy, and was inaugurated on 15 May.^[1] He is the second Socialist President of the Fifth French Republic, after François Mitterrand who served from 1981 to 1995.

Early life and background[link]

Hollande was born in Rouen, Seine-Maritime, Upper Normandy, to a middle-class family. His mother, Nicole Frédérique Marguerite Tribert (1927–2009), was a social worker, and his father, Georges Gustave Hollande, an ear, nose, and throat doctor who "had once run for the extreme right in local politics."^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The surname "Hollande" is "believed to come from Calvinist ancestors who escaped Holland (the Netherlands) in the 16th century and took the name of their old country."^[7] Hollande was raised Catholic but quietly rebelled against the strict religious brothers chosen by his father to educate him.^[7] The family moved to Neuilly, a suburb of Paris, when Hollande was 13.^[8]

Education[link]

He attended Saint Jean-Baptiste de La Salle boarding school, then HEC Paris, École nationale d'administration, and the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris (Paris Institute of Political Studies). He graduated from ENA in 1980.^[9][10] He lived in the United States in the summer of 1974 while he was a university student.^[11] Immediately after graduating, he was employed as a councillor in the Court of Audit.

Early political career[link]

After volunteering as a student to work for François Mitterrand's ultimately unsuccessful campaign in the 1974 presidential election, Hollande joined the Socialist Party five years later. He was quickly spotted by Jacques Attali, a senior adviser to Mitterrand, who arranged for Hollande to stand for election to the French National Assembly in 1981 in Corrèze against future President Jacques Chirac, who was then the Leader of the Rally for the Republic, a Neo-Gaullist party. Hollande lost to Chirac in the first round, although he would go on to become a Special Adviser to the newly-elected President Mitterrand, before serving as a staffer for Max Gallo, the government's spokesman. After becoming a Municipal Councillor for Ussel in 1983, he contested Corrèze for a second time in 1988, this time being elected to the National Assembly. Hollande lost his bid for re-election to the National Assembly in the so-called "blue wave" of the 1993 election, described as such due to the number of seats gained by the Right at the expense of the Socialist Party.

First Secretary of the Socialist Party[link]

As the end of Mitterrand's term in office approached, the Socialist Party was torn by a struggle of internal factions, each seeking to influence the direction of the party. Hollande pleaded for reconciliation and for the party to unite behind Jacques Delors, the President of the European Commission, but Delors renounced his ambitions to run for the French Presidency in 1995, leading to Lionel Jospin's resuming his earlier position as the leader of the party. Jospin selected Hollande to become the official party spokesman, and Hollande went on to contest Corrèze once again in 1997, successfully returning to the National Assembly. That same year, Jospin became the Prime Minister of France, and Hollande won the election for his successor as First Secretary of the French Socialist Party, a position he would hold for eleven years. Because of the very strong position of the Socialist Party within the French Government during this period, Hollande's position led some to refer to him the "Vice Prime Minister". Hollande would go on to be elected the Mayor of Tulle in 2001, an office he would hold for the next seven years.

The immediate resignation of Jospin from politics following his shock defeat by far-right candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen in the first round of the 2002 presidential election forced Hollande to become the public face of the party for the 2002 legislative election but, although he managed to limit defeats and was re-elected in his own constituency, the Socialists lost nationally. In order to prepare for the 2003 Party Congress in Dijon, he obtained the support of many notable personalities of the party and was re-elected First Secretary against opposition from left-wing factions. After the triumph of the Left in the 2004 regional elections, Hollande was cited as a potential presidential candidate, but the Socialists were divided on the European Constitution, and Hollande's support for the ill-fated "yes" position in the French referendum on the European Constitution caused friction within the party. Although Hollande was re-elected as First Secretary at the Le Mans Congress in 2005, his authority over the party began to decline from this point onwards. Eventually his domestic partner, Ségolène Royal, was chosen to represent the Socialist Party in the 2007 presidential election, where she would lose to Nicolas Sarkozy. Hollande was widely blamed for the poor performances of the Socialist Party in the 2007 elections, and he announced that he would not seek another term as First Secretary. Hollande publicly declared his support for Bertrand Delanoë, the Mayor of Paris, although it was Martine Aubry who would go on to win the race to succeed him in 2008.

Following his resignation as First Secretary, Hollande was immediately elected to replace Jean-Pierre Dupont as the President of the General Council of Corrèze in April 2008, a position he holds to this day. In 2008 he supported the creation of the first European Prize for Local History (Étienne Baluze Prize), founded by the "Société des Amis du musée du cloître" of Tulle, on the suggestion of the French historian Jean Boutier. François Hollande awarded the first prize on 29 February 2008 to the Italian historian Beatrice Palmero in the General Council of Corrèze.

2012 presidential campaign[link]

See also: French presidential election, 2012

Following his re-election as President of the General Council of Corrèze in March 2011, Hollande announced that he would be a candidate in the upcoming primary election to select the Socialist and Radical Left Party presidential nominee.^[12] The primary marked the first time that both parties had held an open primary to select a joint nominee at the same time. He initially trailed the front-runner, former Finance Minister and IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Following Strauss-Kahn's arrest on suspicion of sexual assault in New York City in May 2011, Hollande began to lead the opinion polls. His position as front-runner was established just as Strauss-Kahn declared that he would no longer be seeking the nomination. After a series of televised debates throughout September, Hollande topped the ballot in the first round held on 9 October with 39% of the vote, not gaining the 50% required to avoid a second ballot, which he would contest against Martine Aubry, who had come second with 30% of the vote.

The second ballot took place on 16 October 2011. Hollande won with 56% of the vote to Aubry's 43% and thus became the official Socialist and Radical Left Party candidate for the 2012 presidential election.^[13] After the primary results, he immediately gained the pledged support of the other contenders for the party's nomination, including Aubry, Arnaud Montebourg, Manuel Valls and 2007 candidate Ségolène Royal.^[14]

Hollande's presidential campaign was managed by Pierre Moscovici and Stéphane Le Foll, a Member of Parliament and Member of the European Parliament respectively.^[15] Hollande launched his campaign officially with a rally and major speech at Le Bourget on 22 January 2012 in front of 25,000 people.^[16][17] The main themes of his speech were equality and the regulation of finance, both of which he promised to make a key part of his campaign.^[17]

On 26 January he outlined a full list of policies in a manifesto containing 60 propositions, including the separation of retail activities from riskier investment-banking businesses; raising taxes for big corporations, banks and the wealthy; creating 60,000 teaching jobs; bringing the official retirement age back down to 60 from 62; creating subsidised jobs in areas of high unemployment for the young; promoting more industry in France by creating a public investment bank; granting marriage and adoption rights to same-sex couples; and pulling French troops out of Afghanistan in 2012.^[18][19] On 9 February, he detailed his policies specifically relating to education in a major speech in Orléans.^[20]

On 15 February, incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy announced that he would run for a second and final term, strongly criticising Hollande's proposals and claiming that he would bring about "economic disaster within two days of taking office" if he won.^[21]

Hollande visited Berlin, Germany, in December 2011 for the Social Democrats Federal Party Congress, at which he met Sigmar Gabriel, Peer Steinbrück, Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Martin Schulz;^[22][23] he also travelled to Belgium before the United Kingdom in February 2012, where he met with Opposition Leader Ed Miliband; and finally Tunisia in May 2012.^[24][25]

Opinion polls showed a tight race between the two men in the first round of voting, with most polls showing Hollande comfortably ahead of Sarkozy in a hypothetical second round run-off.^[26]

The first round of the presidential election was held on 22 April. François Hollande came in first place with 28.63% of the vote, and faced Nicolas Sarkozy in the second round run-off.^[27] In the second round of voting on 6 May 2012, François Hollande was elected President of the French Republic with 51.7% of the vote.^[1]

President of France[link]

Hollande (right) and outgoing President Nicolas Sarkozy at Élysée Palace on inauguration day, May 15.

François Hollande was elected President of France on 6 May 2012. He was inaugurated on 15 May, and shortly afterwards appointed Jean-Marc Ayrault to be his Prime Minister. He also appointed Benoît Puga to be his military chief of staff, Pierre-René Lemas as his General Secretary and Pierre Besnard as his Head of Cabinet.^[28] On his first official visit to a foreign country in his capacity as President of France, the aeroplane transporting him was hit by lightning.^[29] The plane returned safely to Paris where he took another flight to Germany.

Policies[link]

• Foreign policy: supports the withdrawal of French troops present in Afghanistan by the end of 2012.^[30]
• European politics: aims to conclude a new contract of Franco-German partnership and he advocates the adoption of a Directive on the protection of public services. Proposes closer Franco-German partnership: "an acceleration of the establishment of a Franco-German civic service, the creation of a Franco-German research office, the creation of a Franco-German industrial fund to finance common competitiveness clusters (transport, energy or environment) and the establishment of a common military headquarters."^[31]
• Financial system: backs the creation of a European rating agency and the separation of lending and investment in banks.
• Energy: endorses reducing the share of electricity generated by nuclear power in France from 75 to 50% in favor of renewable energy sources.
• Tax revenues above 1,000,000 euros per year at a 75% rate (rates for part of the income below a million not changed).
• Taxation: supports the merger of income tax and the General Social Contribution (CSG), the creation of an additional 45% for additional income of 150,000 euros, capping tax loopholes at a maximum of €10,000 per year, and questioning the relief solidarity tax on wealth (ISF, Impôt de Solidarité sur la Fortune) measure that should bring €29 billion in additional revenue.
• Education: supports the recruitment of 60,000 civil servants (new teachers), the creation of a study allowance and means-tested training, setting up a mutually beneficial contract that would allow a generation of experienced employees and craftsmen to be the guardians and teachers of younger newly-hired employees, thereby creating a total of 150,000 subsidized jobs.
• Aid to SMEs, with the creation of a public bank investment-oriented SME's and reducing the corporate tax rate to 30% for medium corporations and 15% for small.
• Recruitment of 5,000 judges, police officers and gendarmes.
• Construction of 500,000 state ruled homes per year, including 150,000 social, funded by a doubling of the ceiling of the A passbook, the region making available its local government land within five years.
• Restoration of retirement (paid by the State) at age 60 for those who have contributed more than 41 years.
• Hollande supported same-sex marriage and adoption for LGBT couples, and has plans to pursue the issue in early 2013.^[32]
• The provision of development funds for deprived suburbs.^[33]
• Return to a deficit of 0% of GDP in 2017.^[34]
• Favours ratifying the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, for the recognition of regional languages of France: Alsatian, Lorraine Franconian, French Flemish, Catalan, Corsican, Breton, Gallo, Basque, Langues d'oïl, Franco-Provençal and Occitan.^[35][36]
• Wants to "combine the positions of presidents of the European Commission and of the European Council (currently held by José Manuel Barroso and Herman van Rompuy respectively) into a single office and that it should be directly chosen" by the Members of the European Parliament.^[31]

Personal life[link]

Hollande with his former partner, Ségolène Royal, at a rally for the 2007 elections

For over 30 years, his partner was fellow Socialist politician Ségolène Royal, with whom he has four children – Thomas (1984), Clémence (1985), Julien (1987) and Flora (1992). In June 2007, just a month after Royal's defeat in the French presidential election of 2007, the couple announced that they were separating.^[37]

A few months after his split from Ségolène Royal was announced, a French website published details of a relationship between Hollande and French journalist Valérie Trierweiler. This disclosure was controversial, as some considered it to be a breach of France's strict stance on the privacy of politicians' personal affairs. In November 2007, Valérie Trierweiler confirmed and openly discussed her relationship with Hollande in an interview with the French weekly Télé 7 Jours.

Honours and decorations[link]

• Grand Cross of the Order of the Legion of Honour (2012 — automatic upon taking office)
• Grand Cross of the National Order of Merit (2012 — automatic upon taking office)

Works[link]

Hollande has had a large number of books and academic works published, including:

• L'Heure des choix. Pour une économie politique (The hour of choices. For a political economy), with Pierre Moscovici, 1991. ISBN 2-7381-0146-1
• L'Idée socialiste aujourd'hui (The Socialist Idea Today), Omnibus, 2001. ISBN 978-2-259-19584-3
• Devoirs de vérité (Duties of truth), interviews with Edwy Plenel, éd. Stock, 2007. ISBN 978-2-234-05934-4
• Droit d'inventaires (Rights of inventory), interviews with Pierre Favier, Le Seuil, 2009. ISBN 978-2-02-097913-9
• Le rêve français (The French Dream), Privat, August 2011. ISBN 978-2-7089-4441-1
• Un destin pour la France (A Destiny for France), Fayard, January 2012. ISBN 978-2-213-66283-1
• Changer de destin (Changing destiny), Robert Laffont, February 2012. ISBN 978-2-221-13117-6

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Michel, Richard (2011). François Hollande: L'inattendu. Paris: Archipel. ISBN 978-2-8098-0600-7.  (French)
• Raffy, Serge (2011). François Hollande: Itinéraire Secret. Paris: Fayard. ISBN 978-2-213-63520-0.  (French)

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: François Hollande

• (French) President of France
• (French) Official page at the French National Assembly
• (French) Official website
• François Hollande, 11 années à la tête du Parti Socialiste, Politique.net
• Michael C. Behrent (Sister Republic),"Socialism of Adjustment: François Hollande"

v t e François Hollande Socialist Party Leader Brest Congress (election) Grenoble Congress Dijon Congress Le Mans Congress Presidential campaign Socialist Party presidential primary Bourget meeting Presidential debate Election (International reaction) Presidency Inauguration Presidential trips Timeline Ayrault Cabinet Family Ségolène Royal (separated) Valérie Trierweiler See also Presidency of the General council of Corrèze Corrèze's First Constituency Mayor of Tulle Social Democracy Portal Book:François Hollande Category:François Hollande

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