Interesting article seen on the Talahasee.com

From the page:

“In his free time, young Wague (pronounced “wah-GAY,” it means “Man of Trust”) tracked the animals in the bush. And at night, he went to school.

It wouldn’t be your typical study session. The student didn’t sit hunched at a desk, poring over a book in the yellow flicker of an oil lamp’s light, fist wrapped around a stub of pencil and youthful brow furrowed with thought. The teacher in this class was Diakite’s grandmother, who would gather the children around the fire and tell them fantastical folktales.

….

“It was like going to a movie. Sometimes the stories seemed to be an action movie, sometimes they were about moral issues and sometimes they were about love.

“It was both entertainment and education. Grandmother always said that we would not go to school unless we were educated first in the traditional way.”

The stories told all those years ago in that far-away village take on colorful form and substance in Diakite’s art. An exhibit of his vivid hand-painted ceramics was unveiled Friday at Gadsden Arts Center in Quincy, with Diakite on hand at the opening reception.”

Baba Wague Diakite’s vivid hand-painted ceramics complement his stories. “Where they come from is my root, and part of that root is the farm work, digging in the soil every day, making adobe bricks and building adobe houses.”

Read the full article

I was going through my old diaries the other day and I found entries from a trip to the south of Mali, where we stayed in a village called Zebala which is about 50kms from the nearest big town, Koutiala.

Zebala is a centre for cotton production. You’ll see the cotton trees all over the village. In fact, it’s hard to ignore cotton in Zebala. The fluffy balls blow around in the wind and get in your hair. Enormous lorries rumble into the village in the early dawn hour, shaking you in your bed. You’ll think it is thunder and wait for the lightening! They come to collect the cotton which is stored in huge collection pits all over the village. Women walk in with huge bales on their heads and these are loaded into the pits, and later onto the lorries. In the evening, the whole procession is reversed with the huge lorries rumbling out of the village into the darkening bush.

But not all the cotton is sent out of the village to be bought by middle-men and sold on - some of the cotton is reserved by families. I spent one afternoon filming a lady spinning cotton into thread. It was a process as fascinating as it was deft. An age-old skill is still being maintained and the skill is passed on from mother to daughter. She took a hank of rough cotton, tweaked out a corner of it, attached her weighted spindle to that and then, almost by magic, the cotton thread began to appear. This was wound on deftly.

Another day, I was visiting the local tailor. His friend was there - the bogolan cloth maker. You can see him in this photo on the left. He proudly showed me hand woven cloth that he had dyed himself and which had been made into a suit by the tailor. This was the next step in the process. He was a Bogolan specialist. Bogolan is a special Malian process of printing on cotton using mud-based dyes. The mud is “mined” from the river. The cloth is first dyed a reddish brown, and then black designs are printed on. It is a very specialized trade and again is passed on from one generation to another. The inspiration is from nature and often incorporates animal prints, or tracks, and objects from nature. I admired the suit that he had on and asked him if he would make a suit just the same for my husband. These Bogolan suits are very much admired and are often worn by hunters. The suit he was wearing had an all over print that was a bit like a leopards paw print. I was delighted when he agreed. Then we sat down for a cup of sweet Malian tea before agreeing a price.

Some weeks later, when I was back in the capital, Bamako, a parcel arrived for me. It was the Bogolan suit for my husband. Specially printed, with the year on the front! He is very proud to wear it. We found out later that it is quite rare to own one of these suits, and he has had several envied comments. We feel really privileged that this bogolan cloth maker and the tailor were happy to make one for us.

See also http://sociolingomali.wordpress.com/2006/10/20/zebala-a-village-in-the-sikasso-region-mali/

http://sociolingomali.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/zebala-3-houses/

http://sociolingomali.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/zebala-4-henna-for-feet/

http://sociolingomali.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/zebala-5-christmas-in-the-village/

http://sociolingomali.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/zebala-6-the-hill/

The Dogon of Mali are better known for their astronomy and wonderful cliff dwellings. But there are also wall paintings in caves. Here’s a great picture of some of the paintings by Arctic Photo

Here’s what seems to be a close up of the same place from Staffan at Flickr

He says it is the place of boy’s initiation, Songo

http://www.flickr.com/photos/staffan_martikainen/91859555/

A further pic and more information from Judy D at Flickr who says that ‘The rock paintings are spiritual symbols for the circumsion ceremony and are repainted each time’.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/judyd/391622380/ 

I love seeing calabashes decorated with pyrography - burnt design. A calabash is a kind of very large gourd. In Mali they are ground growing plants - a kind of vine - and one sees huge fields of round objects, a rather surreal experience. I’ll see if I can find a photo. The gourds are hollow inside with some seeds and a little soft matter. When they are harvested they are green and they are allowed to dry and they then become whitish - when is bleached by the sun. In Segou one can find shops selling these objects. They make great presents.

The following article has an extensive description with many pictures:

Pyrography: Traditional Art

by Kathleen Menendez (excerpted by Ilja Scholten)

To Timbuktu in Search of Pyrography!

On the Sahara Desert at Timbuktu Visiting a Tuareg Man and his Camels

The Republic of Mali is a West African country, located on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. Timbuktu is one of Mali’s northernmost cities–very remote even from the capital city of Bamako, where our anthropologists who got us these photos live and work. The term folk art is designated to represent that art which is the naive interpretation of an unapprenticed artist–the spontaneous inspiration of an unschooled individual. In the case of traditional art, although it often originates from the common people wishing to adorn and enhance their surroundings and everyday accoutrements (the aforementioned overlap in meaning), the emphasis is, nevertheless, on the tradition. Moreover, the word “tradition” implies some sort of apprenticeship and imparted cultural reference. “Tradition” tells us there is a proscribed format, the incorporation of recognized symbols, an inherent ethnicity.

Pyroengraved Bench in Traditional Pyrography of Mali

A Malian pyrographer uses several large, but thin, metal tools much like knives that have flattened blades with tips heated over hot coals. The coals are in a little metal bin with a small hand-pressed bellows attached to fire them up. He doesn’t sit at a table, but sits on a little bench close to the ground with the bellows on the ground beside him.

In keeping with the preferences of most pyrographic artists, Malian artists likewise prefer very white wood. They also pyroengrave a great deal on calabashes.