Sister Fa (real name Fatou Diatta, born 1982 in

Dakar Dakar ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Senegal, largest city of Senegal. The Departments of Senegal, department of Dakar has a population of 1,278,469, and the population of the Dakar metropolitan area was at 4.0 mill ...

, Senegal) is a Senegalese rapper and anti-

female genital mutilation Female genital mutilation (FGM) (also known as female genital cutting, female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and female circumcision) is the cutting or removal of some or all of the vulva for non-medical reasons. Prevalence of female ge ...

(FGM) activist.

Career

Diatta began her career as a rapper in 2000, when she made her first demo tape. The following year, she performed at the Senegal Hip Hop Awards. In 2005, she released her first album, ''Hip Hop Yaw Law Fal''. In 2008, she toured Senegal to raise awareness of the problem of FGM. In 2009, she released her international debut album ''Sarabah: Tales From the Flipside of Paradise''. In 2011, ''Sarabah'', a documentary about Diatta's tour ''Education Sans Excision'' (French for ''Education without Cutting''), premiered at the human rights festival Movies That Matter.

Critical reception

''Sarabah: Tales From the Flipside of Paradise'' received a lukewarm review from Jon Lusk of the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

, who wrote that "too much of the album consists of fairly pedestrian or annoyingly sing-songy melodies that echo playground chants (like Poum Poum Pa) or seem transparently aimed at the ring tone market." In ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'', Mark Hudson gave the album 3 out of 5 stars and wrote that Diatta "pits her gutsy verbalising against exquisite traditional melodies on this well-crafted debut." Rick Anderson reviewed the album for

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

, concluding that "It's rare that a hip-hop artist balances lightness, seriousness, funk, and message as successfully as this one does -- especially the first time out."

Personal life

Diatta was subjected to FGM when she was a child. She met Lucas May, an Austrian ethologist, in 2005; they married within a week. In March 2006, she and her husband moved to

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sister Fa Senegalese hip-hop musicians 1982 births Musicians from Dakar Living people Activists against female genital mutilation Senegalese women rappers Senegalese emigrants to Germany Violence against women in Senegal