Al Jazeera English’s “The Stream” has been focusing a lot on African news themes lately: first, the 100th anniversary of South Africa’s ANC; then yesterday, it dedicated the half hour program to #OccupyNigeria. The producers invited journalist Omoyele Sowore of SaharaReporters, Afrobeat musician Sean Kuti (who has been prominent in marches and protests), and Gbenga Sesan from the group Enough is Enough Nigeria. Lively discussion ensued and Nigerian and international media’s role in the events also come under scrutiny. Later today (2.30pm Eastern Standard Time) The Stream continues its focus on African themes when Senegalese singer Youssou N’dour’s run for president gets an airing. Word is N’dour will be on the program. It will be interesting to see how they tackle N’dour’s candidacy, reported thus far in breathless tones in Western media.

The truth is, most serious analysts don’t give N’dour a chance and in some quarters his candidacy is viewed as a publicity stunt. N’dour, who has a large fan base outside Senegal because of his pop sound, has no electoral organization in place; he enters a a crowded opposition field; and the incumbent (Abdoulaye Wade) is an experienced campaigner who has built an impeccable electoral (and vote buying) machinery.  As historian Mamadou Diouf told The New York Times: “Because of his [musical] success, [N’dour] is the most popular artist in the whole history of Senegal. But it’s going to be hard for him to advance even to the runoff because he doesn’t have political experience or an organization.” N’dour will also have to shake the perception that he is an opportunist or that he is just a pop star.

Until recently N’dour was an ally of Wade and some critics associated his business success – he owns a range of broadcast and print media in the country – to the association with Wade. By the wa, in one of the oddest pieces I have read recently in the Financial Times, Robert Novak’s son-in-law Christopher Caldwell in his regular column went after N’dour for this very reason. That’s fine, except Caldwell basically endorsed Wade. I can’t figure out why Caldwell is so invested in a Wade presidency.

In any case, one other decisive factor is N’dour’s shaky relationship to traditional Sufi religious authorities who have some sway in electoral politics. Wade is very deferential to them. In the past N’dour has riled them. In the most famous case, in 2004 N’dour recorded an album, “Egypt,” of Sufi Islamic praise music with the Egyptian National Orchestra. The album won N’Dour a Grammy. The Grammys is notorious for honoring aging African musicians, but the win for “Egypt” seems legit. The album consists of beautiful, moving, introspective music that grows on you. But “Egypt” was controversial in Senegal.

With the album, N’dour said he wanted to counter negative perceptions of Islam in the West in the wake of 9/11. Sufi adherents did not feel their very relaxed brand of Islam had anything to do with fundamentalist versions of the religion and that N’dour was dragging them into a rhetorical war that they did not want to be part of.

This controversy and dispute between N’Dour and followers of Ahmadou Bamba form the heart of the 2008 documentary “I Bring What I Love” – including objections by some Senegalese that the filmmakers not film holy sites and religious rituals. For a while, record stores were discouraged from selling the album and radio DJs did not want to play any of the songs on the album. I wonder if N’dour has lived that controversy down.

More recently, N’dour has flirted with the extra-parliamentary opposition to Wade which is led by a new generation of Senegalese music stars, mostly rappers who have taken his place in popular culture at home an who don’t necessarily see him as a political leader. In 2009, for example, N’dour recorded a song to condemn the government’s handling of the electricity crisis (a focus of the young protesters), but he is not considered a central part of the rappers’ struggle. (Some of them are the focus of the 2008 documentary “Democracy in Dakar”; the other is the rapper Awadi.)

The program should make for interesting viewing.