Do we like Youssou N'Dour?
Our score: 5 out of 10. Decades of public service and charity on one side, public pushback on LGBTQ+ rights in his own words on the other.
Youssou N'Dour is one of the best-known musicians Africa has produced. NPR describes him as a Grammy winner best known for his vocals on Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes", and as a popular businessman with local media interests and little formal education. He was once close to President Abdoulaye Wade, then turned on him.
The politics is the interesting bit. In January 2012 he said he was giving up performing to run for president as tension grew over Wade's bid for a third term. The constitutional council threw out his candidacy over invalid signatures, while approving Wade's, which sparked deadly riots. He then campaigned for Macky Sall, who won with 66 per cent and made him culture and tourism minister.
Not everyone loved the move. NPR reported his presidential bid divided Senegalese, with many telling him to stick to music. Earlier, in 2003, he put out an album of praise to God in Wolof and said he was "first and foremost a Muslim". He said it showed the tolerance of Islam and that extremists had distorted the faith.
Now the harm check, and this is where he loses points. In a 2014 TV5 Monde programme made with Le Monde, he was asked about anti-gay laws in Nigeria and Uganda. Senego reported a heated answer built around "Arrêtez de nous commander", rejecting Western governments and media telling African countries what to do. Senego also reported in 2017 that he told TV5 Monde he was against homosexuality.
Both of those are short video posts with no transcript, so we can't give you his full words. We also found no sign he has campaigned for anti-gay laws, or pushed conspiracy theories or climate denial. We did not dig deeply into who he works with, so that is a gap. For a page that asks whether someone backs LGBTQ+ people, rejecting criticism of anti-gay laws is a real mark, and it's why this lands as mixed.
The good stuff is substantial. A 2019 Songlines profile says he campaigned with Bono and Bob Geldof for Make Poverty History and sought US support for the fight against malaria in Africa. It also says he helped lobby for the return of African artefacts for Senegal's Museum of Black Civilisations.