Didier Lalaye (Slam poet, Medical Doctor)
Didier Lalaye, a.k.a. Croquemort, is a slam artist from Chad.
His music of social and political protest has inspired a new slam generation in Chad, and is recognised internationally in and outside of Africa. After the release of his last album “Apprenons à les comprendre” in 2015, Didier Lalaye a.k.a. Croquemort has been invited to Mali, The Netherlands, Paris, Liège, Ouagadougou, Yaoundé and Abidjan, where in October 2016 he received the prestigious Pris de la Francophonie.
As an entrepreneur and a medical doctor, he started the m-health project, that provides easily accessible medical care to children with bilharzia in rural southern Chad using mobile technology. He takes part in very diverse events, from singing in festivals of slam poetry to conferences on French language and African studies.
He is always active, writing without pause and sharping his tongue for denouncing and describing what in society fills him with indignation. He talks especially about Chad, even from abroad. Singing and writing are his natural ways to express indignation and anger.
Beyond his jobs of slammer and medical doctor, he is the founder and executive director of the festival N’djam s’enflamme en slam, based in N’djamena (Chad). He is also the manager for the contacts with the Francophonie in the artistic-academic project Voice4Thoughts-Netherlands, in collaboration with the Voice4Thought foundation and the University of Leiden. He currently lives between Cameroon and the Netherlands.
