Sociolingo’s Mali

I’ve just seen a post on the African Press Association website about a new African xylophone museum to be created in Sikasso. It will be the first museum designed to preserve the heritage of the balafon, one of the famous musical instruments of the region. The Balafon is played in Mali, Burkina Faso, Cote-d’Ivoire, Togo, Benin and Ghana and the ‘triangle du Balafon’ festival is held in Sikasso.

Here’s a video of two Burkinabe balafonists from the collection of brunh21

The following article is from OCPA NEWS 179

A Day at the Mali National Museum - Like many other African institutions, Mali’s National Museum is confronting the controversial issue of reclaiming works held in countries of the North. It has taken a wider view of the question, encompassing the fight against looting and illicit trafficking of cultural goods.

http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=37054&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

Source et contact: courier.unesco@unesco.org

The following article was seen on The Power of Culture at http://www.krachtvancultuur.nl/uk/current/2007/march/mali.html

Musée National du Mali: Art conservation, research and prevention

Mali’s National Museum is a lively and active institution that plays a prominent part in combating art theft and cultural heritage trade in the region. Bram Posthumus wrote a portrait of the winner of the Prince Claus Award in 2006.

Pass through a high square entrance over which water always flows and you enter a large and leafy garden. An artificial stream flows back to the entrance, representing Mali’s lifeline, the Niger. Scale models of a few famous buildings, like the Djenné mosque, are shown in the garden. The exposition rooms, the cafeteria and the library, built in the regional style, exude the same peace of the centuries.

Musee National du Mali. Copyright: Prince Claus Fund

The Mali National Museum has been accommodated in this beautiful, roomy housing since 1981. The institution does research but also primarily exhibits art. Each of the three large exposition sections with tasteful lighting has its own theme.

The reconstructed villages and numerous artifacts in the archaeology section clearly show how many thousands of years this country has served as a trade intersection, with arms reaching out to Spain, to Egypt and, of course, along the river. The ritual art section displays the masks, statues and other pieces used by the many peoples who live here, and those are more than just the Dogon. And in a monumental room measuring seven hundred square meters, Mali’s ancient textiles culture is displayed. Basin, the basic shape, bogolan, the raw carpets and naturally the great costumes.

Quite a few objects were delivered by the French customs authorities. Art theft is an enormous problem, but the museum is devoting significant effort to awareness: “This is our national heritage – don’t waste it.” Art thieves are not easy to stop, but luckily there is the law. Clandestine export of archaeological artifacts and cultural heritage is a crime in Mali.

The museum won the Prince Claus Award in 2006 in recognition of its efforts to save the cultural heritage and for the part it plays in culture and development. Modern life regularly visits this spot. Upon returning to the entrance, a radio is blasting next to a camera. Tight T-shirts, trendy caps and sunglasses mime a new rap video clip. The National Museum is one of the city’s favourite backdrops.

Bram Posthumus

 The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Encompasses present-day Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, and eastern Niger

	See also Guinea Coast and Eastern and Southern Africa. The western Sudan is crisscrossed with trade routes linking this interior region of West Africa to the Atlantic coast and ultimately to cities across the Sahara. The western Sudan is the first area of sub-Saharan Africa to be reached by Muslim traders, and the influx of wealth, goods, and cultural and religious influences contributes to the dynamic artistic production. Nok, in the eastern part of the region, is one of the earliest African centers of ironworking and terracotta figure production. Jenne-jeno, populated as early as 250 B.C., is the oldest known city of sub-Saharan Africa. By 850 A.D., it has become a major urban center but is just one of at least twelve sites of comparable size in the middle Niger region. Several other significant political and commercial centers emerge during this period, including Timbuktu, an important site of Islamic religion and scholarship as well as trade. Read full article

Metropolitan Museum of Art pages

Encompasses present-day Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Niger, and eastern Chad

	See also Guinea Coast and Eastern and Southern Africa. The influence of Islam and the deepening networks of trade spur the growth of several great savanna states, including the Ghana, Mali, and Songhai empires. Further development of metallurgy contributes to both material wealth and artistic production, and Arab reports depict the Ghana empire as the “Land of Gold.” As well as stimulating trade, Islam sparks great cultural and artistic innovation, producing newly syncretic mixes of distinctive regional and Islamic traditions. In 1324–25, the ruler Mansa Musa brings the wealth of the Mali empire to the attention of Europe, North Africa, and Arabia when he completes a pilgrimage to Mecca. Architectural traditions are transformed during the Mali empire. The construction of enormous adobe mosques such as those at Jenne and Timbuktu dates to the thirteenth century. The mosques standing today in West Africa are the product of long histories of construction and reconstruction. They nevertheless reflect the economic conditions, cultural histories, and architectural traditions of the medieval empires from which they originated. Read the full article