Ken Ndiaye and L’Horloge du Sud, Brussels - Putting a swing into the diaspora

Ken Ndiaye is the one of the best known faces of the African diaspora, and above all a link between this community and others from all corners of the earth in the cosmopolitan city of Brussels. Trained as a ballet dancer at the Mudra de Béjart dance school in Dakar, Senegal, he is also a musician and anthropologist. In 1997 he opened, along with Belgian associate Paul Jamoulle, L'Horloge du Sud (the Clock of the South), a unique venue which combines a restaurant, café théâtre, meeting centre and artists’ workshop in Brussels.

My mourning is more joyful than your birthday

This modestly decorated place is the one of those rare venues. A Prime Minister can be holding a meeting next door to that of a small association of unemployed immigrants. A group of German EU civil servants celebrating a birthday in a very official manner could find themselves sharing a table and mixing with a Congolese family who are joyfully marking the end of a period of mourning.

The venue has a warm ambiance, but this alone doesn’t explain why both Bart de Wever’s Flemish nationalist N-VA party has organised receptions there. The French-speaking Green party, Ecolo, also holds its meetings there. A deputy burger master from Brussels City Hall makes regular visits and immigrants and likewise, small local neighbourhood associations of all nationalities. L’Horloge du Sud’s principle is that entrance is never restricted, not even when an event hosted by the Prime Minister is going on at the same time as a meeting of Bangladeshi residents or of a Kivu women’s association [Ed: Kivu is region in the Democratic Republic of the Congo]. "The Horloge du Sud is open by definition," says Ken Ndiaye, the man behind the venue’s recipe of success.  

The outset: saving Brussels from a double split

At the end of the 1980s, in town planning terms Brussels underwent a rupture between the so-called ‘European’ neighbourhoods of the city and those close to the Ixelles commune [Ed: one of the city’s administrative areas] which has a large African community and which became depopulated owing to property speculation. "Trying to do something to set up a meeting point for these two worlds was my first concern. The second was to find a place for African culture where young people could show the work they were doing and provide a gathering point for various community associations", Ndiaye explains.  

Artists like Denise Blue and Pitcho found a window for their work at the Horloge du Sud. Others such as Pierre Van Dormael and the kora player Soriba Kouyaté , Marlène Dorcéna, and Thione Seck, king of Senegalese rumba, have all put on concerts there, just because they wanted to.  

Ken Ndiaye also works with the Royal Museum for Central Africa as an expert and an adviser. This began when he set up, along with a small group of Africans, a group to reflect on the role of the institution, with its wealth of objects from Africa’s heritage. He is currently working there on two projects with a European dimension, respectively, the role of ethnographic museums in the world today and their links with the diaspora.  

Asked about his modesty and disciplined attitude to work, Ken Ndiaye smiled: "I simply do what I want to do. I am first and foremost an enthusiast, the number one fan of the artists that come to my place. Unlike other venues that I respect it’s great that the public doesn’t come here for African folklore. I am happy that this is the place where a Cameroonian can meet a Finn".  

Hegel Goutier