Senegalese artist and singer, Dieynaba Sidibé, AKA Zeinixx is cutting her teeth in the male-dominated hip-hop scene giving messages of hope to inspire young women. Graffiti turned out to be Dieynaba Sidibé’s first love. At 17, she had already started experimenting with painting and drawing.
“It was on TV. I was sitting in my living room and I saw people doing big walls and I thought, ‘This is what I need’,” the poet says, one hoop earring reeling in laughter. “I don’t like small things. I was doing big canvases, and I said to myself: ‘A wall is a bigger surface for the expression’.”
Her parents wanted her to pursue her education but, but Sidibé sought out Senegal’s budding graffiti community, finding her way to the Africulturban cultural association – a nonprofit in Dakar’s Pikine suburb that promotes urban culture through festivals and skills training.
There, she won over one of the country’s pioneering artists, Oumar Diop, AKA Afia Grafixx, as a mentor.
“I already had my basic drawing skills because I used to draw Mickey Mouse, McDonald’s logos, and things like that, and I drew on the walls of my room,” The 31-year-old said “Grafixx showed me what graffiti was – how to write, how to do lettering – and I started to get interested in hip-hop culture. Now, here I am, 14 years later.”
Zeinixx is Senegal’s first female professional graffiti artist and a core member of its male-dominated hip-hop scene. She is also a slam poet, singer, and entrepreneur. In August, she launched Zeinixx Entertainment, organising visual arts workshops for the youth.
“My refrain is to tell young people: ‘Don’t let others choose for you what you would like to do tomorrow…For me, it’s essential to be able to make your own decisions,” She said.