Doudou Ndiaye Rose is Dakar's head drummer and composer of Senegal's national anthem. He is the father of forty-two children, all of them percussionists, who along with various sons and daughters-in-law supply the orchestra with its new members. Despite a traditional ban on female drum playing, there are in fact around twenty women drummers in Doudou Ndiaye Rose's orchestra – a great rarity in Africa.

In Senegal, he is considered a national treasure. For the past forty years, Doudou Ndiaye Rose has represented the Senegalese percussion tradition associated with the many artists he has played with. He has a culturally eclectic take on music, having worked in a wide range of genres, whether it be rock (Rolling Stones, Peter Gabriel), jazz (Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie), French chanson (Higelin, Lavilliers, Jonasz), Breton music (bagad Men HaTa), or symphonic music, as his recent work with the orchestra of Lower Normandy testifies.

His family is Griot, and he was born with what the call the "gewol" – a natural feel for rhythm - indeed Doudou Ndiaye Rose's musical career kicked off a very long time ago! Already at the age of nine, in 1939, he was fascinated by the sound of the sabars that he heard in the courtyards of the Medina in Dakar. He took to attending all the festive occasions he could just to hear the drummers. To avoid going against the wishes of his father, who was none too keen on his passion for the sabar, he went to live with his grandparents. Shortly after, he met the country's greatest drummer, El Hadj Mdemba Seck, who taught him the art of drumming over several years. At the same time, he studied plumbing, a trade he practised for forty years.

It was thanks to Jospehine Baker that his career really took off in 1959. On a visit to Dakar, the singer invited Doudou Ndiaye Rose to play with her on stage, apparently whispering to the band leader "Take good care of the young man, he is one of the future greats." After Senegal gained its independence, he became a lead drummer and stage manager for the Senegalese ballet, touring Europe in the sixties. He caught the interest of Maurice Béjart and performed in his ballet Mudra Afrique.

One of his proudest achievements is having created, at the request of President Senghor, the first troupe of Senegalese drum-majorettes, who march every year on Senegal's Independence Day. With their short loincloths and scarved heads, they perform complicated dances to the rhythm of the drums of Doudou and his "Rosettes".

This astonishing spectacle dazzled TV audiences following the televised bicentenary celebrations of the French Revolution in 1989, when the troupe participated in the famous Marseillaise march down the Champs-Elysées. Doudou Ndiaye Rose – composer of Senegal's national anthem – accompanied Jessie Norman on the sabar as she sang the Marseillaise.

With this special gala in his honour, Doudou Ndiaye Rose is without doubt the African artist who has most successfully preserved and promoted tribal rhythms while combining them with modern music.

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   Interview with Doudou Ndiaye Rose

What does it mean to be honoured with a special gala?
To have been chosen from ten million Senegalese gives me enormous satisfaction. This distinction is given to all Senegalese citizens whose life's work merits such an honour. Last year, the first ever gala of this type honoured Joseph Ndiaye, the curator of the Maison des Esclaves in Gorée. This shows that my country recognises my work abroad, and that is a great comfort. People often say that no one is a prophet in his own country. This recognition demonstrates that the people hold me in high regard. And the Head of State, when we met last week, told me "We should have done this a long time ago."

Is the fact that the greatest Senegalese artists will be participating important to you?
Of course. All the local artists will be there, including Youssou Ndour, Thione Seck, Baba Maal, Ismael, Lô, Omar Pène and Alioune Mbaye Der. They will be present, as will the traditional musicians I have invited from all the regions of the country.

Dakar is gearing up to hold the third World Festival of Negro Arts next year. Will you be involved?
A few days ago I saw the minister of culture, who asked me to collaborate with her Brazilian counterpart Gilberto Gil and also with Manu Dibango to compose an anthem for the festival. We all met up yesterday to organise this collaboration. I have already agreed to perform at the opening ceremony, with five hundred drummers.