Abdel Gadir Salim

In a country where nationalist lyrics have been the norm and governmental repression the standard response, Abdel Gadir Salim has stood out as a charismatic, yet resolutely non-political, musician: vibrant, successful, innovative, and widely admired. Abdel Gadir was born in Dilling, in the far west of this country, but started out by writing and performing distinctly urban songs that sounded as if they belonged in Khartoum. He studied both classical European and Arabic music at the Khartoum Institute of Music and started playing oud at the suggestion of a friend. In the early ...