Djibril Sarr, alias Majnun (“the madman” in Arabic), was born in Senegal in 1981 to a family of musicians. He was 17 years old when his older brother, philosopher and economist Felwine Sarr, sent him a guitar from France. “My brother and I learned to play it. It was then that music really started for us.” Two years later, Majnun left Senegal for Orléans to study law, which he soon gave up to devote himself to music.

He then joined the reggae group Dolé, led by his brother Felwine Sarr, helping him establish a network in the eclectic Orléans scene. Determined to forge his own path, he then adopted the stage name Majnun, concentrating on his own compositions from then on. Little by little, he put together a cast of musicians with diverse backgrounds and styles, the Black-Magic Sofas Sofas, before releasing his first album, Kindépili (“pure heart” in Dogon), in 2017.

Majnun got his name from Sufi literature; it conjures the idea of a man enamoured with the absolute. Adamant that music can bring people together much better than ideas, Majnun thinks of his concerts as “healing ceremonies”. The Black-Magic Sofas Sofas, his concert backing group, act as “warrior-healers”: their name is a throwback to the Mandinka warriors who guarded the borders of the Mali Empire under Sundiata Keita.

Their music is a vibrant mixture of languages (Wolof, Serer, French, Lingala) and styles. Even so, Majnun refuses to let himself be locked into an identity, and thinks that the label of “world music” boxes artists into overly standardised creations. Reaffirming his will to remain independent on several occasions, he has so far refused to play with any major artists.

Majnun began the collaborative and participatory “Décolonial Tour” in West Africa in 2019. It brought him to several Instituts français where he gave workshops and master classes. These initiatives, intended for a younger audience, are part of his wish to “decolonise minds”, which he thinks of not as a political project but as a spiritual journey and a necessary reconnection with his own roots. On stage, he performs with half his face in make-up to symbolise the duality of the world, its positive and negative aspects. The recorded “Décolonial Tour” concerts should be released in a live album this year.