Mali:The Future of Mud: A Tale of Houses and Lives in Djenne

Source: Earth Architecture

The Future of Mud: A Tale of Houses and Lives in Djenne

Thursday, November 15, 2007

The Future of Mud: A Tale of Houses and Lives in Djenne, a new film by Susan Vogel and presented by the Musée National du Mali, is the story of Komusa, master mason and heir to the secrets of Djenne architecture. He hopes his son will continue the family profession and maintain their world heritage city - but Djenne is connected to a global world now, and competing ideas about the future have arrived. Documentary footage and staged scenes tell an intimate story of family tensions, contemporary building practices, and the precarious future of the renowned mud architecture of Mali.

Treehugger writes of the film:

A “collective connection to earthen architecture is best seen in the film’s footage of the annual re-plastering of the town’s pride, the Great Mosque, which is the world’s largest earth building, in addition to being a distinguished UNESCO World Heritage site. The first earthen structure here on this site dates back to the 13th century and is re-plastered every year. The day-long, annual festival is truly a communal affair, with plenty of foreign tourists gawking on and filming the orderly chaos.”

photo of the Great Mosque of Djenne by Ferdinand Reus

The Future of Mud: A Tale of Houses and Lives in Djenne
Co-Produced with Trevor Marchand and Samuel Sidibé.
Edited by Harry Kafka. Music by Issa Bagayogo. In Bamana, French, English with English subtitles. Color, 58 minutes. Distributed by FRIF.com. Available fall 2007.

Mali hosts symposium on protecting African cultural memory

Source: APA

Mali hosts symposium on protecting African cultural memory

APA-Bamako (Mali) A two-day international scientific symposium on the rights of peoples to protect their cultural memory opened Tuesday in Bamako, the Malian capital, with participation of a number of intellectuals and university professors from various countries.

The symposium, which is organized by the Qaddafi Prize Committee and the North-South Institutes for Culture, Dialogue and Human Rights, coincides with the occasion of granting the 2007 Qaddafi Prize to the Ahmed Baba Institute for high studies and Islamic researches in the legendary city of Timbuktu in Mali.

The Malian minister of High Education and Scientific Research Amadou Toure said in the inauguration speech that during the 8th century, Timbuktu witnessed that peoples of West Africa were principal activists and participants in the international circle for thoughts, economy and politics.

Gold mines made West Africa a target point for gold traders and as well a point to establish relations between black Africa and the Arab and European worlds, Malian minister said.

The African intellectuals taking part in the symposium warned that African languages, culture and historic belonging were facing dangerous threat by globalization; therefore they called on Africans to depend on the creative words in order to benefit from modern technologies.

The president of the International Popular Committee for Qaddafi Human Rights Prize said “the cultural memory discussed in the symposium reminds us of the historic role and participation of Africa in global civilization. We must return to this heritage in order to integrate it in the process of our liberation, as it was expressed by the African militant Amilcar Cabral when he said ‘before any thing the liberation process is a cultural movement.’”

Several speakers considered that the need to protect the cultural memory was more urgent today, particularly when it comes to confrontation between the world and the liberal globalization which is considered as an aggression on culture and national identities.

The handing over of the Qaddafi Prize to the Ahmed Baba Institute is scheduled to take place in Bamako, as the institute is credited with preserving tens of thousands of ancient texts which prove that Africa had a written history.

The Qaddafi International Prize for Human Rights, which was established in 1988, is granted annually to one of the persons, associations, or international organizations that have distinctively contributed to service to humanity.

SS/daj/APA 2008-01-16

Malian cultural institute in Timbuktu receives Qaddafi Prize for peace

Source: APA

Malian cultural institute in Timbuktu receives Qaddafi Prize for peace

APA Bamako (Mali) A big celebration was held in the city of Bamako, the Malian capital on Wednesday on the occasion of the handing over of the Qaddafi Prize for the year 2007 to the institute of Ahmed Baba in Timbuktu, in northern Mali.

The festival was attended by President Toumani Toure of Mali, Libyan officials as well as intellectuals and experts from different countries.

According to the organizers, the objective of giving the Prize to the Ahmed Baba Institute is to encourage it to continue protecting the historical ancient texts and the funding of a new library for the institute.

All the speeches delivered during the ceremony attested to the historical role of Timbuktu in connecting Africa with the Arab and European world. The experts however expressed the belief that a large number of the historical ancient texts were still buried under the mud homes and in the desert.

The event was attended by the Malian president Amadou Toumani Toure, who stressed on the importance of the prize in making the world concentrate and study the real African history.

Researchers in Timbuktu are fighting to preserve tens of thousands of ancient texts which they believe prove Africa had a written history.

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