This hip-hop artist and educator is making Quebec's Black history more accessible
From guided tours to children's books, Aly Ndiaye is expanding what Quebecers learn about their province
While nominations are open for 2024 Black Changemakers, CBC Quebec is catching up with laureates from the last three years. Submit your nomination for a 2024 Black Changemaker here.
Aly Ndiaye, also known as Webster, is both a historian and hip-hop artist. For years, he has been working to expand what is taught about Quebec's history.
Ndiaye, named a CBC Quebec Black Changemaker in 2021, blends his passion for music and education as he promotes African Canadian-Québécois history.
"I've continued on the same path, giving lectures, doing exhibitions and anything so that people might learn better," he said.
Ndiaye has also just finished a podcast series for CBC/Radio Canada. It's about Shadrach Minkins, an enslaved person who escaped from Virginia to Montreal via the Underground Railroad.
And he remains active in the music world. In October, He was part of a revue of Quebec hip-hop classics with the Orchestre symphonique de Québec.
Since being named a Black Changemaker, Ndiaye has also finished a French translation of The Racial Contract by Jamaican author Charles W. Mills. And he helped create the exhibition Word is Bond. The Sound of Rap Queb at Quebec City's Musée de la civilization last year.
He says his love of hip-hop and history "feed one another."
He even talks about hip-hop during his guided tours in Quebec City, which have inspired similar Black history tours elsewhere in the province. "Hip-hop played an important role for racialized persons in Quebec, [because] we didn't see ourselves in the mainstream media," he said.
These days, Ndiaye is working on another children's book. He has already published one, Le Grain de Sable, about Olivier Le Jeune, the first African slave in Canada.
He says that for anyone who wants to follow a similar path, an extensive appetite for reading is a necessity. He says learning about the Black history of Quebec is like building a house brick by brick.
"We just continue to work and then some other people will put the windows on and we put the door," he said. "So we do our part and then some other people will continue."
He encourages young minds to "embrace the journey," and be a part of a project that's bigger than themselves.
Do you know a changemaker? Nominations are open for 2024 CBC Black Changemakers.
We invite you to nominate your colleagues, friends and family in Quebec — anyone who is making a difference. Self-nominations are welcome as well.
CBC Quebec is accepting nominations until March 8 at 11:59 p.m. ET.
Fill out the form here.
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