Biography of Aly Ndiaye (a.k.a. Webster)

On February 28, 2023, the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change and Minister responsible for Parks Canada, announced the appointment of a distinguished Canadian to the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC):

Aly Ndiaye (a.k.a. Webster), Quebec

Aly Ndiaye, a.k.a. Webster, hip-hop artist, independent historian, activist and lecturer, was born and raised in the Limoilou district of Québec City. His father is Senegalese and his mother is from Quebec. He has always been proud of his origins and describes himself as a SénéQueb.

His passion for history led him to pursue university studies in this field; he holds a bachelor's degree in history from Université Laval. He regularly gives lectures on a variety of topics including the history of the Afro-descendant presence and slavery in Quebec and Canada since the time of New France. In order to better disseminate this information, he has set up the Qc History X tours, a guided tour of Québec City through the prism of slavery, its various actors and the presence of people of African descent who have lived there since the early 17th century. He was also the curator of the exhibition Fugitives! at the Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec from April to September 2019.

Mr. Ndiaye is a veteran and one of the pioneers of Quebec's hip-hop movement. Active since 1995, his art is a tool that allows him to convey his cultural and intellectual background in the most creative way. He travels the world to conduct writing workshops where he teaches the creative use of French through rap and to give concerts.

Ndiaye is the author of a hip-hop writing manual, À l'Ombre des Feuilles (Québec Amérique, 2019), a children's book that follows the journey of Olivier Le Jeune, the first African slave in Canada, Le Grain de Sable (Septentrion, 2019), and the French translator of Charles W. Mills' Racial Contract (Mémoire d'encrier, 2023).