How the Political Security Situation Affected the Tourism in Timbuktu Written By El Hadj Djitteye September 15, 2016, 02:21 GMT
Timbuktu is the mysterious of northern Mali, a mystical city of 333 holy saints of Sufi Islam. Most of people have heard of Timbuktu, yet to this day few can actually place it on a map. Timbuktu is one of the northern most remote cities in Mali, sitting on the edge of the Sahara desert. Some people have called it a city of gold because for centuries Timbuktu has been an important stop for the trans-Saharan caravans that often carried gold to markets north of the Sahara, in Europe. Gold was bought, sold, and packaged here for final transport over the desert in those caravans. The city has also been for centuries an important center for the study of Islam. Timbuktu attracted explorers from all over the world, from Ibn Battuta of Morocco in the 14th century to René Caillié of France in the 19th century.
Timbuktu’s spiritual reputation and isolated location continue to entice travelers keen to explore the Sahara and visit one of Africa’s largest centers of Islamic learning. As a result of this history, this West African city—long synonymous with being a city at the uttermost end of the Earth—was added to the United Nations World Heritage List in 1988, many centuries after its apex.
For centuries Timbuktu has been peaceful haven of peace for western visitors. Known as the black pearl of the Sahara, some people called it the end of the world. It is true that Timbuktu s landlocked in a desert region and it is a poor city, but it’s a power house when it comes to art, architecture, and literature. Its manuscript archives have been a major attraction for scholars all over the world because those manuscripts tell the rich story of West African history for the past thousand years. Tourism was one of the most profitable industries in Timbuktu, as well as a source of revenue for the craft industry. Tourism has helped support generations of Tuareg, Fulani, Bambara, Dogon, and Songhai families.
Timbuktu is a gateway for travelers to the Sahara. Its music festival, founded in 2001 and known as the Festival au Desert, was a major attraction, bringing musicians from around the world, including Bono, the lead singer of the rock band U2.
Thousands of tourists visited Timbuktu each year to celebrate Mali’s rich music and cultural traditions. The last Festival au Desert was held in 2011, weeks before the war broke out. I refer to that event as the last song in the desert before the war.
Before the war, According to Mali’s Ministry of Tourism, the country had more than 100,000 international tourists visiting every year before war broke out in 2012. Now it has gone down to around 10,000. The economic importance of tourism in the region of Timbuktu is highly perceived in economic development around the region of Timbuktu. The tourist economy helped support the families of Tuareg camel master, tour operators, guides, the translators of Timbuktu, to the black smiths and the iron craftsmen who for centuries armed the warriors of many tribes. Tourism helped cast a fresh light on the ancient culture and architecture of Timbuktu. But that light has dimmed, not just in Timbuktu but in countries all across West Africa that is now feeling the effects of the conflicts in the Sahel.
In order to understand the situation of the lack of tourist in Mali, the Timbuktu: Land of Peace and Culture crew had the privilege to interview the manager of the prominent Hotel La Colombe of Timbuktu, Mr. Sormoye Mahamane.
Q: How has the political security situation affected your hotel since 2012?
A: Tourism is an important part of the economy in Timbuktu. Our main partners are travel agencies which bring us tourists’ every year but that’s not happening now. Even our restaurant, bar, swimming pool are also closed. Today our main problem is to manage the expenses of the hotel and also pay the wages of employees.
Q : Can you explain us how your hotel work before the current crisis and the occupation of Timbuktu in 2012?
A: Well, at this time our hotel was one of the most attractive hotels in the city and we were working with numerous travel agencies around the world. Before the crisis, if people did not book ahead of time, it was hard to find a room in Timbuktu. Even some of the restaurants had to be reserved ahead of time. But now there are no customers, there are no tourists in the city at all. Tourism and hotel activities of Timbuktu are dead. We only hope that this situation will change one day.
Q: What future do you see for tourism?
A: My vision is that when peace returns to the Sahara desert, tourism will help change the course of the future. And authorities must remove us from the red line zone (a zone north of which the government recommends tourists do not visit). If we stay only in the red line zone, nothing will change.
Q: What is your last word?
A: My last word is that we must find solutions to solve this conflict so that the local population will work together with dignity. Without peace there is nothing. Peace is our only hope for the future of tomorrow.
Tourism helps the region of Timbuktu and the nomad villages in the remote north, which is landlocked, arid, and poor. This desert region is a place where children have few opportunities to attend a formal school. But thanks to the will of lovers of Timbuktu today some nomad villages are lucky to have new schools built in their communities. The Caravan to Class initiative has helped raise money for school construction.
The tourism industry can help bring real change in the life of local communities particularly for children.
In order to understand more about the impact of tourism we interviewed Mr. Barry Hoffner, Co-Founder of the Caravan to Class Initiative.
Caravan to Class is a registered 501c3 which seeks to bring education to villages around Timbuktu and the Southern Sahara, one village at a time, by engaging diverse communities of supporters.
Q: Can you explain your experience in Timbuktu as a tourist?
A: It was a childhood dream for me to travel to Timbuktu–a fabled place that really gave me a sense of inspiration and adventure.
Q: What was the goal of your visit?
A: My focus was first to be able to travel in Mali, down the Niger River for three days from Mopti to Timbuktu. I was not just excited to get to Timbuktu but to enjoy the journey there. The main focus was to attend the Festival au Desert in 2010.
Q : Explain what motivates you to bring literacy to Timbuktu by building schools nomad villages around Timbuktu.?
A: The trip was amazing and inspiring, with hospitable interesting and friendly people with such a strong sense of community and culture. Having traveled to more than 100 countries in my life, I can easily say that traveling to Mali was one of my best experiences. While in Timbuktu for the festival, I took a camel ride one day to the village of Tedeini. I witnessed the children learning in makeshift tent-classrooms. Speaking with the head of the village and his wife in a very warm and open manner, I asked them what his village needed most and his answer was “a school.” Going back to sleep in Timbuktu that night, I promised myself that I would find a way to build them a school to celebrate my upcoming 50th birthday. We started the Tedeini school project in mid-2010 and I returned to Timbuktu to see the school completed towards the end of 2010.
Q : How many schools did you build in Timbuktu.?
A: Since then, Caravan to Class has built nine schools and we are currently working on our tenth school project in the village of Bantam.
Q: What future do you see for the children of Timbuktu?
A : It is hard for me to honestly answer the question of what kind of future I see for children in Timbuktu There are so many variables, first among them are a) the security situation and b) the commitment of the Malian and foreign governments to place greater prioritization on development in the North.
My first English school was on the winding streets of Timbuktu. At that school I had my daily interactions with international visitors. Today it makes me really sad to see these important historical sites without visitors.
The security crisis deeply affected the lives of local tour guides of Timbuktu. Most of them growing up in the winding streets of Timbuktu. They guided tourists around the city, helped them understand the history of the city and even barter for goods in market places. But today they find themselves without any job opportunities.
In order to understand the life condition of tour guides of Timbuktu we interviewed a former tour guide, Mr. Alhadi Toure, whose nickname as a tour guide was “CHICAGO.” He is now an antique-dealer to survive in this crisis.
Q: Explain us how the political security crisis affected the tour guides of Timbuktu?
A: This crisis killed our industry due to the kidnapping of westerners and attacks and the civil war. Due to the crisis I was obliged to change jobs and am now an antique-dealer in order to survive in this crisis.
Q: What future do you see for tourism in Timbuktu?
A: For me there is no future without peace. We must solve this conflict forever.
I have a deep passion to write about the tourism industry of Timbuktu because my own story is connected to this industry. I learned my first English word in the winding streets of Timbuktu by following tourists, learning their languages, and offering my services as a guide. I spent my youth traveling around Mali as translator and trip planner
for travel agencies. My ambition has been to tell the story of the cultural heritage of my country for foreign visitors.
Editor: Peter Chilson
Copyright 2016 Timbuktu Land of Peace and Culture. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed
Let’s Read No Place to Go a Novel written by John H Sime my Editor in the USA. Written By El Hadj Djitteye September 14,2016,01:07 GMT.
Born 1952, Viroqua, Wis, graduated in Comparative Literature BA/MA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison 74/76, Sime served U.S. Peace Corps in Mali, West Africa, as a teacher at the Ecole Normale Superieure , teachers college in Bamako, Mali 76/78. He later graduated from the Kentucky School of Mortuary Science, Louisville, Kentucky in 1980. He became a Funeral Director in western Wisconsin. No Place to Go stars Cy Butt, a legendary whiskey drinker, practical joker, and sometimes lawyer who does secret investigations for the state of Wisconsin on murders and thieves.
Cy Butt is joined by a colorful group of supporting characters, including aliens. This is a work of fiction that absorbs elements of reality. Cy Butt was the quintessential professional student who actually attended the University in Madison for decades on a family inheritance; also alluded to are Ed Gein, the notorious body snatcher from Plainfield, Wis., and such actual crimes as the Evelyn Hartley kidnapping in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
No Place to go is one of the most inspirational books I ever read because it’s written by my editor, mentor, adviser, Mr. John H. Sime. By reading this book in the middle of nowhere, in the fabled desert city of Timbuktu, it’s just like traveling across the United States and walking in the winding streets of Wisconsin. I discover and see a lot of similarities of my own people. I discover by this book the state of Wisconsin where my editor was born grew up and is spending the rest of his life. The story of Cy Butt really touched my heart.
No Place to go is a book that explains for me and helps me discover the life in Wisconsin as well as the story of Cy Butt and Enoch the African American. John H. Sime also talks about one of the cultural heritage legacy of ancient culture, I mean the Dogon cultural heritage legacy, I read with a deep understanding how he describes Dogon people religious belief such as the Nommo and Amma, which explains the Dogon ancestral religious beliefs, which I spent my early university years teaching to tourists from around the world, particularly Americans who visited these ancient historic sites of the escarpment hill of the Dogon country.
This fascinating book of a real hsitorial figure cy butt gave me a better understanding of western Wisconsin life in the 1950’s. For us the new generation of digital age of E learners this book is an inspiration for an entire generation as writers and lovers of literature. I met John H. Sime in 2012 at the early beginning of the conflict in the fabled desert city of Timbuktu, at this time I was writing on a blog posting articles. Thanks to my work we met and he volunteered to be my editor since that time up until now he is still still educating me in English writing skills.
I have a deep passion to learn English since I was born in the winding streets of Timbuktu in remote northern Mali, West Africa. This region is land locked, arid, and poor but it is a power house when its comes to history, arts, and literature. I have met a lot of people like john H. Sime, coaching me mentoring me and send me novels from the United States. I today am using this knowledge to transmit the cultural heritage of my ancestors to the outside.
Thanks to the coaching and the deep mentoring of john H. Sime, one of my top priorities is to empower and strengthen the youth of Timbuktu in terms of leadership and writing skills. The initiative will train soon youth of Timbuktu in citizen journalism and empower them to be the voice of their communities. I have learned a lot from you, John, today I will use this knowledge to change the life of my communities and be among the global citizens of the world.
Editor : John H. Simz
Some thoughts on Jon Meacham’s biography of Thomas Jefferson written by El Hadj Djitteye August 22, 2016,01:55 GMT
Jon Meacham’s book, Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power (Random House, 2013), is one of the most inspirational leadership books I have read. Thomas Jefferson’s leadership skills and his love for his country showed me how the making of the United States involved sympathy, empathy, love and compromise. These were the key elements of Jefferson’s leadership, making him the most effective of the founders of the American Republic. As Meacham argues, Jefferson“dreamed big but understood that dreams become reality only when their champions are strong enough and wily enough to bend history to their purposes.”
In terms of sociability and cultural connection, Jefferson believed that a hardworking citizenship is as important as good leaders. Meacham’s book shows that leaders must be constantly in the pursuit of educating themselves in order to handle the affairs of their state and face challenges.The gladiators in the arena of America’s founding were all men with principles, working to preserve the existence and perpetuate the life of the republic. “Our greatest leaders are neither dreamers nor dictators,” Meacham wrote. “They are, like Jefferson, those who articulate national aspirations yet master the mechanics of influence and know when to depart from dogma.”
All leaders have principles and vision but they must respect each othereven when they disagree. People always have differences, but we risk destruction if we don’t think empathetically and focus on what unites us.I believes such empathy was a fundamental tool of Jefferson’s political career.
I have strong interests in learning about the personal life and leadership of American leaders. I was born in the fabled desert city of Timbuktu 30 years ago and I am passionate about the cultural heritage of my homeland. I display this passion on my BLOG: http://timbuktu-lopac.tumblr.com/ . My work has helped me to meet great people like the honorable Cynthia Schneider, who gave me Meacham’s book about Thomas Jefferson during her last visit to Timbuktu in November 2015. Here is the link of the article about her visit: http://timbuktu-lopac.tumblr.com/post/138025036301/the-timbuktu-renaissance-visit-in-the-fable-desert.
November 2015, with Honorable Schneider and the Timbuktu renaissance crew.
Schneider is Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown University. She is also co-director of Timbuktu Renaissance, a non-profit group in the United States that works to promote and protect Timbuktu’s rich cultural and historic resources.
When I was at the University of Bamako, from 2005 to 2009 one of my major subjects was American studies. I have read about American culture in books given to me by foreign visitors who visited Timbuktu, like Schneider. The knowledge I gained through my reading has helpedme not just to survive but to thrive in the middle of nowhere in the fabled desert city of Timbuktu, a landlocked city that is poor but also a power house when it comes to art, architecture, and literature.
In the process of being the change I want to help my communities become more technologically literate and to embrace E learning, reading eBooks, tutorial videos and workshops. I want to help communities reach out to communicate with different people for intellectual exchange.I am among the young African innovators eager to develop citizen journalism and the use of internet communication technologies in order to teach my communities how to survive and thrive in the digital age.
I dream of being a leader for positive change. I believe that leadership doesn’t only mean being out in front of people, but leadership is also about getting things done. I still have a dream deeply rooted in Timbuktu that one day nomad communities will walk hand in hand in the sands of peace and sit in the dunes of brotherhood without any distinction of race, religious belief, or political affiliation, but as one people. I want to see the world united.
I Dream about a “new Africa” – more prosperous, more confident, and taking its place on the world stage.
Peter Chilson contributed to the editing of this Article.
The Art of Griot, in the Traditional Society of the Madingo Empire of Mali. Written By El Hadj Djitteye August 8, 2016 , 01:15 GMT
Am siitting with le leader of the female band Tartit Fadimata Wallet Oumar in her house in Bamako.
Mali is internationally famous for its musical traditions. Singers such as late Ali Farka Toure, Salif Keita, Toumani Diabaté , the Tuareg group Tinariwen and Tartit have been honored by the Grammy awards and they have the ability to fill concert halls around the world. They owe their success to the tradition of the “griot” in African culture. The griot “jali” or “jéli” in Mandingo dialect spelling is a West African oral historian, storyteller, praise singer, poet and oral musician. The griot is a guardian of oral tradition and is often seen as a societal leader due to his traditional position as an advisor to royal personages in the traditional Malian Mandingo Empire.
In Mali’s cultural heritage, the griot is a bard. The griot has to know many traditional songs and he must also have the ability to extemporize on current events and be able to interpret chance incident. Although they are popularly known as “praise singers,” griots may use their vocal expertise for gossip, satire, or political comment. In modern West Africa, political leaders from the village to the presidency often hire griots to sing their praises, which is part how they earn their reputations as “praise singers.” But what griots really do is much more complex.
Am with Toumani Diabate in the Malian ministery of Culture office February 2016
According to the hand written documents of the Empire of Mali, the griot in this highly conservatives’ society serves as oral historian, adviser, arbitrator of disputes, praise singer, musicians, story teller. The griot is like a walking history books, preserving the ancient stories and traditions through song and poetry.
The West African griot is a troubadour, a living archive of the people’s traditions. He is a poet, historian, singer, comedian, and official oral archivist all in one. Griots spend decades in apprenticeship, studying the art and the history before they earn the title. Often, the position is handed down through families. Through the oral medium of the griot, Africa’s cultural heritage griot is handed one generation to another.
The Mandingo Empire of Mali was founded by Massa (king in mandigo dialect) Sundiata Keita in 13th century. In the Epic of Soundiata, KingNaré Maghan Konaté offered his son Sundiata a griot, Balla Fasséké, to advise him in his reign.Balla Fassékéis considered the founder of the Kouyaté line of griots, which existsup to this day.The Kouyate griots live in Guinea and Mali. The most famous version of the Soundiata legend is Soundiata: An Epic of Old Mali (Pearson publishers 2006), translated by the Guinean historian D.T. Niane who took down the story from a griot of the Kouyaté clan.
Cultural Caravan for Peace Mopti, 2015
In the madingo language, the word Kouyate means that there is something between us, some sort of story or information that must be shared. So, the Kouyates took on the role of educating the imperial family, the Keita clan, and praised the great men of the empire for action in the battle and other accomplishments as they built the empire. The griot also passes messengers between lovers, a job for which song and poetry are perfect. In some cultures if you love someone you cannot simply visit her or him in order to tell them your message. It’s not that simple, so the griot acts as a go-between. A young man can pay the griot to inform the girl about his intentions of love. The griot also plays this role in communication between villages that may be negotiating over farm land and other resources. This is an example of how the griot plays a crucial role in the daily life of communities and helps people and communities connect with each other.
Most villages in the Empire of Mali also had their own griot, someone who told tales through song and poetry of births, deaths, marriages, battles, hunts, affairs. They also sang of hundreds of other things like the history of great hunters and the exploits of village leaders. This is still true today. Griots are often relied on to protect the individual history of a family, or a village, or a region. Most musical instruments that griot play with be traced back hundreds of years.Their guitars are made from large squash gourds and the drums are made from goat skin.
The griot tradition helps explain why the modern Republic of Mali—landlocked, arid and poor—is an international sensation on the music scene. The late Malian guitarist and song writer Ali FarkaToure, a native of the Timbuktu region of northern Mali, is one of the best known African musicians in the world.
Both Toure and the singer Salif Keita, another Malian international star, trace their lineage back to the old Mali Empire. Salif Keita is a member of the Keita clan, is a descendant of the empire’s founder, Soundiata Keita himself. The Tuareg band Tinariwen won a Grammy for Best World Music Album in 2012, even as Mali was struggling with civil war. In the empire Soundiata founded, life was based on social harmony among ethnic group and the griot played a crucial role in the stability of this society. For this reason, the griot has never been more important to the social and cultural fabric of not only Mali, but to all of West Africa.
Cultural caravan for peace Mopti 2015
In 2012, northern Mali fell under the hand of Islamist militants linked to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. During this time the social harmony among ethnic group was destroyed. Today, as Mali struggles for peace and reconciliation, the art of the traditional griot can play a crucial role in the process of bring ethnic groups together to restore the social cohesion. The griot is there to remind us of our cultural heritage. The symbiotic relationship between griots and their traditional patrons is very important. The griots maintain all the knowledge of their patron’s life background, from the stories of their ancestors’ accomplishments in the past right down to who they married to and with whom they made alliances. For centuries this knowledge has been handed down from one generation of griots to another.
Cultural caravn for peace Bamako 2016
During these difficult times, we Malians must understand that the griot can be a peace maker. Through his knowledge of history and communities he can help get communities talking to each other. The griot can use his knowledge of social relationships to help strengthen national cohesion for all Malians.
I have a deep passion for storytelling, for talking with elders, for reading ancient hand written documents of our history. It is my goal to give my reader a better understanding of my cultural heritage.
Peter Chilson and John H. Sime contributed to the editing of this article.
How Jokes Bridge Relations between Peoples in the West African Nation of Mali. Written by El Hadj Djitteye june 29, 2016, 01 : 45 GMT
Begnemato, an ancient tradtional dogon village, in the region of Mopti, central mali. Photo El Hadj djitteye, december 2011.
On any given day, in the middle of a marketplace in Mali, when two men from different ethnic groups meet, the first thing they might do is mock each each other, even offer gentle insults. In this situation a Songhai farmer, for example, might mock a Dogon acquaintance, calling him a “cliff dweller” because many Dogon villages sit in high sandstone cliffs of central Mali. The Dogon farmer, on the other hand, might mock the Songhai farmer because his people dwell on the vast plains of the Sahara. A foreigner hearing such a dialogue for the first time might worry that the insults wouldstart afight. But such dialogue is part of a longstanding cultural practice in West Africa, dating back more than 800 years to the beginnings of the Empire of Mali.
Today, as Mali struggles to overcome a civil war and develop its process of peace and national cohesion, the joking banter can play a crucial role to bring all communities in Mali to the table of brother and sisterhood and make this country a heaven of peace as it used to be in the era of the great empires—the Ghana Empire, the Mali Empire, and the Songhai Empire respectively. The age of the empires lasted from the 7th to the 16th century—a period during which violent conflicts were relatively few.
Across West Africa,what is known as the “the joking relationship” has for centuries helped clans communicate across differences of language and culture. Among theMandinkaof Mali,this is called “sinankunya.”In Burkina Faso, the Mossi call it “rakiré.”In Ivory Coast, among the Soninké, it is “toukpê” or “kalungoraxu.”This West African social practice allows, and even requires the members of the same family (such as distant cousins), or members of certain ethnic groups to mildly mock or insult, without negative result.
The joking relationship is a special legacy of Mali Empire whose various clans used the banter to keep relationships positive.,So, for example, between the clan of Diarra and Traoré families, or Ndiaye and the Diop clans. a member of one family can insult another, calling him a “thief” or “peanut eater” without anyone being shocked.
Here is another example: If a man of the Keita clan sees a man of the Coulibalyclan walking down a street, even ifthey do not know each other well they would both be free to start insulting each other without consequences. The Keita might say, “Ah, you are my slave, you people cannot be trusted because you are thieves.” And the Coulibaly would respond in kind. These verbal confrontations through humor are actually ways of easing social tensions. Oral tradition says that this custom was introduced by Sundiata Keita, who founded the Empire of Mali around 1225. According to historians, the origin of the kinship system and the joking banter adopted by individual clans, such as the Keita and the Coulibaly and others, dates back to African antiquity in the Nile valley.
Today’s joking banter also dates back to totemism practiced many centuries ago when each clan was associated with a totem animal or plant. Today in black Africa, many clan names are still associated with a totem animal that can play a role in the way different clan members mock each other.
More than just a game, these joking relationships are a form of diplomacy that exists between the Fulani and Serer peoples in Senegal and across the continent to Mali. For instance, in central Mali, another good example of a joking relationship is the one between the Dogon and Bozo peoples. In the great market of fish of the city of Mopti generally Bozo peoples bring fish and sell to other ethnic groups. In the market, whenever a Dogon person comes across a Bozo the first thing he will do is to joke that the Bozo is his slave. The bozo will respond by mocking the Dogon man about living in the cliffs without water. The two men will laugh together during this banter and and at the end the Bozo fisher will always sell to his Dogon cousin some fish to cook of the day.
Sometimes the two individualsinvolved in the conversation might not even know each other. An unwritten rule of the joking banteris to keep the insults on the surface andnot offend deeply. This ritual rudeness leads to picturesque scenes, where people compete in inventiveness to find original and comical insults. In the highly conservative traditional societies of Mali, the banter plays a crucial role in the life of local communities and different ethnic groups living along the band of Niger River, in central Mali, and in southern region of Mali, up to the edge of the Sahara desert.
My own clan is the Songhai, farmers and of the Sahara and Sahel, and we are banter brothers of the Dogonpeople who inthe highsandstone cliffs of Bandiagara Escarpment in central Mali. This banter permits the Dogon and Songhai clans to mock each other and create a climate of joy,laughter,and happiness whenever these communities meet each other.
am in front of the cave paintings in an ancient dogon tradtional village called sorgho in december 2011,here am explaining the cultural heritage of cave paintings to international tourists.
Here is an example of what I mean: I spent my twenties attending universityin Bamako, the capital city of Mali. During those years I worked as an international trip planner and translator for foreignvisitors toMali. I worked with many travelers from Europe and the United States. As we traveled around Mali I taught them the cultural heritage of my people, including how different clans communicate through jokes and mild insults in order to solve problems and knit together tighter relationships.
On visits to the Dogon country with my international travel companions,I carried kola nutsto give as gifts to my Dogon cousins. Every time we entered a Dogon village, the elders, children, girls and women always shouted at me and called me “the sand man.” They mocked me by saying that I lived in the middle of the sand dunes of the Sahara while they lived a more noble existence inthe high cliffs. I responded by saying, “Ahh, but you are my slaves.” And we laughed together. At the end I offered them gifts from the people of the sand dunes to the people of the cliffs.
am in front of the cave paintings in an ancient dogon tradtional village called sorgho in december 2011, here am explaining the cultural heritage of cave paintings to international tourists.
In traditional Mali this sort of banter has developed across generations for many hundreds of yearsright up to our modern age. The joking relationship plays a crucial role in terms of bringing communities together and installing a true social cohesion between Malians and neighboring West African nations. Presidents and diplomats employ such dialogue in their meetings.
Along ethnic lines, the origins of the joking relationship are many. The relationship is sometimes introduced during conflicts and through war alliances, as between the Mossi and Samos peoplesin Burkina Faso. Sometimes it developed between people from different lifestyles. This is the case, for instance,in Mali and Burkina Faso between the Bobos, who are sedentary farmers, and the Fulani, who are nomadic herders.
Despite cultural and linguistic differences, whenever there is a problem between clans, or two people of difference clans, the use of joking banter can change the face of the problem by replacing anger with laughter. The banter plays a crucial role in the daily life of local communities around West Africa in the process of peace, reconciliation, and social cohesion among communities.
I have a deep passion for storytelling. To understand to a story you need to hear it in the words of those who live the story.
Peter Chilson and John H. Sime contributed to the editing of this article
The transfer of Mahamane Baye Written by El Hadj Djitteye June 24, 2016, 01 :23 GMT
European Football “soccer” to Americans is one of the most important sports stories today in the world. The region of Timbuktu is known around the world for its cultural heritage, and it is also a player in the culture of sports is developed. This is thanks to the new generation of natives of Timbuktu who are eager to develop that sport in the sand dunes of the Sahara desert. This article discusses the transfer of Mahamane Baye.
He is one of the first natives of Timbuktu to compete at the national and international level in sports—soccer in particular.. He was born on October 10, 1996, in Timbuktu. Like most kids native to Timbuktu, he started to touch his first ball in the winding streets of Sankore near the great mosque with his school mates and friends of childhood. That was before he started playing football with the regional clubs and national junior team in 2015.
Since his childhood, Mahamane Baye has been seen as the shining star in the winding streets of Timbuktu’s Sankore neighborhood, where he was selected to play for the neighborhood team. In 2016 he signed a contract with the Djoliba Football club of Mali.
Since the years 1960 the Djoliba Football club is one of the most important clubs in the West African nation of Mali. In order to understand his transfer and his feelings to play for this important football club, the crew of Timbuktu Land of Peace and Culture, on online news/medias /publishing based in Timbuktu met Mahamane Baye at the Djoliba foot club stadium in the capital of Mali, Bamako , for an exclusive interview.
Q: Can you explain us your transfer to the Djoliba Football Club?
A: Concerning my transfer to the Djoliba football club, first of all I was playing for the “Avenir Football club of Timbuktu” I played in the junior African cup organized in Senegal. I also played in the world youth competition in New Zealand. It’s these competitions that permitted me to be identified by the Djoliba foot club and that’s why they gave me this contract.
Q: As a native of Timbuktu what is your feeling about being selected by a football club classified among the top three best clubs of Mali?
A: It’s a great pleasure for me because it’s the first time that a native of Timbuktu is selected by this club, which is one of the biggest clubs in this country, and it’s really a pleasure and honor to play in their club.
Q: Can you explain to us your experience playing with the Djoliba club?
A: Before my selection I was playing for the Avenir football club of Timbuktu. But being with the Djoliba club is not easy because there are always challenges. We must be prepared and must be flexible to make good results.
Q: What is your position in this club?
A: I am a goal keeper in this club, but up to now the coach didn’t put in place his team for playing, because we are more than 5 goal keepers. They change the goal keeper and give opportunity to other goal keepers to participate in order to select at the end the top two goal keepers of the club during competitions. Since my arrival I Played two matches, the first one was with the ASB ( Sport Association of Bamako ) , football club (we won 2 -1) the second was with the COB (Olympic club of Bamako ) football club (we tied).
Q: As a native of Timbuktu, you used to play with people from the desert. Did you see a spirit of team work in this Djolibaclub?
A: Of course there is a spirit of team in this club because since my arrival they received me very well. I also found some friends I played with in the youth world cup in Senegal. So it’s great to see them and play in the same club.
Q: Are you living your dream as foot ball player actually in this club?
A: Yes am really living my dream because since my arrival up to now everybody in this club admired me and I am doing great training with them. The most important thing for me is that here all the fans of the club really admire my work, support me and encourage me.
Q: What’s your last word?
A: my last word is to ask by your microphone for the blessings of all the population of Timbuktu. Since the beginning of my career as a football player they have supported me and called me every day by mobile phone to encourage me in my work. I also need the support of the entire country because it’s important to notice that things are not easy. Our country is in a war. We must and we need to live together in order to play for peace together from the forests of the south of Mali to the sand of dunes of Timbuktu, Gao and Kidal and bring change via football for all our communities.
After our talk with Mahamane Bye, we interviewed the coach of the Djoliba football Club,Mr. Nouhoum Diane. We asked him how the golden stars of Timbuktu work in his club.
Q: Can you please introduce yourself to us?
A: My name is Nouhoum Diane, coach of the Djoliba football club of Mali.
Q: Can you talk us about the Djoliba football club?
A: The Djoliba is one of the most important clubs in this country and all lovers of football in this country know the Djoliba FC. Since the independence of Mali up to know it’s among the clubs that dominate Malian Football.
Q: As the coach of this club what do you feel about the young goal keeper Mahamane Baye, native from Timbuktu, He left his homeland, which is a region in crisis, to play in your club?
A: Well before we hired him I knew him because he was playing in the Malian national youth team for players less than 20 years old. When they contact me about his transfer, I didn’t hesitate. I agreed directly because as I already explain that when I first saw him playing for the Malian national youth team at in international level, I knew he really deserves to be here.
Q: What future do you see for him in the football industry?
A: As a goal keeper I think that he has a lot of qualities and he must work hard in order to improve his qualities and make his dream true.
Q: We know that in this country the youth really like football so what future do you see for Malian youth football players?
A: I think that our youth really prove what they can do great things. I say this because Mali participates in international competitions and African competitions.We won the African youth cup less than 17 cup. We also played in the final of the Youth World Cup finals and also placed third in the Youth World Cup of youth, for players less than 20 years old. From year to year we understand that Mali’s football really improves.
Q: What is your advice and recommendations for young talented Malian football players to live their dreams?
A: The youth football players must have ambitions. They must work hard seriously. Nothing is easy. They must make their own challenges. So those who are professional football players in Europe, Malians who have gone on to play in the united states, in the Maghreb and in Asian countries actually I got the chance to train most of them. My advice and recommendation was always: never give up and work hard to make the difference.
Q: What is your last word?
A: I am really happy because I love Timbuktu and have been here a long time. Today I am in front of a journalist who is also a native of Timbuktu. This shows me that things are moving; in the future we hope to travel to Timbuktu with Mahamane Baye to play with Alfarouk football club of Timbuktu.
Peter Chilson and John H Sime contributed to the editing of this article.
The empowerment of women and girls of Timbuktu By El Hadj Djitteye MAY 16,2016
The empowerment of women and girls ofTimbuktu, in remote northern Mali will not be reality they have the power to act freely to exercise their rights as full and equal members of a society. The empowerment of women and girls is vital for their families and nations.
Women and girls living with equal rights can make the world a better place for their families, especially their children. When they are empowered economically more money goes back to their children’s health and more money goes back to their communities. Today, the lives of women and girls are traditionally dedicated to the life and the well being of their husbands and children in nomad villages on the edge of the Sahara desert. But their lives are limited to their daily domestic responsibilities. In other countries in the east and west women around the world are winning political elections and working in other high professional jobs. Our West African societies need to recognize that it’s in everyone’s best interest for women to be empowered. It’s good for families, it’s good for business, and it’s good for our economies. If you empower women you empowered the entire nation.
In the fabled desert city of Timbuktu in northern Mali the notion of empowerment is not generally well understand by traditional conservatives. They understand the role of women only in terms of ensuring the family households and the raising of children.
Most traditional families never allowed their women access to adult literacy programs or women’s leadership associations. They don’t permit girls to attend schools. For them, the woman’s place is at home, where girls must help their mothers in the kitchen for the well being of the family and husband.
In recent weeks I’ve been following the American presidential election primaries on television, mainly via CNN and BBC. I’m especially interested in the Hilary Clinton’s campaign. Clinton wants to change America and be the president of the most powerful country in the world. Her courage touches my heart because when a woman is empowered the whole nation is empowered.
In Mali, there are a lot of empowered, well educated women like Fadimatta Walett Oumar,
the Touareg singer and leader of the Tartit band, a famous group of women Touareg musicians. She told me in a recent interview in Bamako that in the Touareg communities the woman is like the pillar of the tent. If the pillar of tent falls, the entire community will fall down. I understand by her quotes that she supports rights for women, especially, giving them better access to education, literacy, training in leadership and activism. The skills they develop with broader education will help women defend their rights and make them messengers of peace and positive change in the 21 century.
In Mali, if we empower our women, they will participate as active citizens in the life of the country and play a crucial role in the peace process, in national reconciliation, and conflict resolution. We must assist women by bringing them sustainable opportunities like adult literacy and leadership programs to train them to thrive in the digital age and connect with other women around the world.
When I was kid, I saw my mother running a business selling used clothes, shoes, and jewelry. I grew up following her during trips to Bamako, capital city of Mali. During her trips she had to face difficulties of transportation. She raised me as a single parent and she enrolled me in school and supported me up to 18 years of age. At that time I got my baccalaureate she still continued supporting me up to the end of my university career so I am the fruit of an empowered woman.
My mother–one of my father’s three wives under the polygamous system allowed by Islam–raised me alone. —
I understand what it means and where the money of empowered women goes when women or run their own businesses. They money goes to their families and into the communities. But traditional conservatives condemn this ideology of empowerment. Our conservatives must understand the notion of empowerment and give opportunity to woman and girls to shine and thrive and one day and be like Hilary Clinton or the German chancellor Angela Merckal, Michel Obama, and my friend and partner, her Excellency Ambassador Cynthia Schneider, Co-founder of the Timbuktu Renaissance Initiative. That initiative is dedicated to the cultural heritage of Timbuktu and the city’s role in promoting peace and sustainable development for the nomads of Timbuktu.
John H. Sime and Peter Chilson contrubuted to the editing
Let every child’s light shine: The Caravan to Class Foundation builds schools in the remote northern Timbuktu region of Mali in West Africa. Near the fabled desert city of Timbuktu, the nomad village of Kacondji, recently got its first primary school thanks to the Caravan to Class Foundation. The school is built on the bank of the Niger River. Written by El Hadj Djitteye Editor: Peter Chilson
Education is a civil rights issue and we must guarantee equal opportunity for every child in Mali is to guarantee access to quality education. Access to education will also help our young people contribute to the development of their villages, their regions, and their country and serve the entire world in the future.
Mr. Barry Hoffner , Founder of Caravan to Class, with operations in the united states and in Mali, works to bring education opportunities to the remote north of Mali and specifically to nomad villages on the edge of Sahara. Mr Hoffner’s goal is nothing less than achieving literacy for every child in the Timbuktu region.
The Caravan to Class provides children with clothes and food,
so that every single child on the bank of the NigerRiver will opportunity to not just survive, but to thrive.
Over three days traveling the middle of the bank of Niger River I visited the new school build by Caravan to Class and talked to traditional village leaders in the nomad village of Kakondji. I also spoke with children in the school.
Here is an overview of what I learned in Kakondji :
Kacondji is a nomad village founded around the year 1200. The village sits on the right bank of the Niger River, about six kilometers from the rural district of Dangha in the circle of Dire in the region of Timbuktu. Kacondji’s population is composed of different ethnic groups, including the Songhai, the Fulani, the Bella, also known as the “Black Tamasheq,” and the Bozo tribe, whose people are masters of the Niger River and fishing.
Kacondji traces its cultural heritage back to the early Mali Empire and the population of Dendi people, who are Songhai speakers, and to the Kel Dourgou clan of the Tuareg in the north. Other groups came later, exploiting the river for fishing.Communities along the river tended to be nomadic, moving with their animals to find grass and water as the river ebbed and flowed in annual flood seasons. So, the land along the river has been settled by a mosaic of different ethnic groups dependant on grass and water for animals, and also on farming. Today, the people of Kacondji survive off farming, herding livestock, and fishing as they have for generations.
On this arid landscape on the southern edge of the Sahara, children face great difficulties in getting access to education, especially now that the north of Mali has been so impacted by the civil war that began in 2012. It’s difficult for the government to extend its reach into a region convulsed by religious and ethnic conflict.
Environmental issues also make access to education resources a problem for the region’s children. Drought and food availability has been a constant problem in northern Mali and much of the Sahel for decades. And when the rains do come, many villages are flooded out. Homes are sometimes lost, as well as livestock and grain harvests.
In highly traditional African societies,children work hard from an early age to support the family—helping with fishing, farming, and selling produce at market. Often children are withheld from school so they can help work to support the family. For example, a child from the Bozo tribe
generally parents employ their children in the early morning, before dawn, to go and help them fish. After this work, the children, both girls and boys, will then go to school or they may miss school altogether. Children from Tuareg and Fulani cattle herding families
are often asked to manage entire herds during the day, moving them back and forth between water and grass. And girls will often do domestic family chores on top of this.
When you explain the notion of education to these highly conservative traditionalist parents it’s not easy for them to understand. They never attended any formal school in their entire lives. Most of these parents were born and grew up in the village and are just trying to survive and keep their traditional style of life. So the Caravan to Class in partnership with the local none government organizations north and development hopes to educate nomad villages elders, traditional chefs, parents and their children about the importance of education. So am an education adviser for the Caravan to Class initiative, I traveled from the city of Timbuktu
to meet traditional chefs, and elders different nomad villages in order to explain to them the importance of sending children to school and the importance of literacy for the future of the nomad villages.
This year the children of the nomad village of Kacondji are attending a new school built by Caravan to Class. Donations that paid for the school came mainly from the United States. I visited Kacondji to talk to people about the new school.
In African traditional societies one cannot enter a village without first offering a greeting to the traditional chief and elders. Such a greeting is a gesture respect for the village and its traditions and culture. So, whenever I enter a village to do research, I first meet the chief and notables. For this story I met the elders responsible for the village education to explain my reason for visiting Kacondji.
My first interview was with the village chief of Kacondji, in his traditional house in songhoye dialect.
Q: Can you please introduce yourself to us?
A: My name is Younoussa MahamaneMaiga, chief of the village of Kacondji
Q: What do think about the importance of the building of a new school in your village by Caravan to Class, which is an American initiative?
A: The building of the school by the Americans really helps our village. There is no more important thing one can do us in this village than to build a school. We are very happy about this initiative.
Q: What is your message for the donors and Caravan to Class?
A:In the name of our village we thank all the donors who helped finance the building of this beautiful school and give to our children the chance to be educated.
Q: We know that education is not easy in nomad villages because parents generally employ children to work on the family farms, in cattle herding activities or fishing in the river.So what message do you have to encourage nomad parents to let their children come to school?
A: My message for these parents is to send their kids to school. Many parents have not had the same chance for education and it’s important for them to understand the opportunities their children will have with more education.
Q: What do you think about the importance of education for the children of your village?
A: Education is very important for our children. Education helps bring them out of the darkness and to become more aware of the realities of the world.
Q: What’s your last word?
A: I thank the Foundation and local none governmental organizations for the building of this school.
Afterwards we interviewed the president of the committee that manages the school of Kacondji.
Q: Can you please introduce yourself to us?
A: My name is Islahi Alkalifa, native of the village of Kacondji. I am a farmer, and I am the president of the village committee that manages the school.
Q : What do you think about the building of this school?
A : We people of the village of Kacondji are very happy about the building of this school because it’s important to highlight that generations of people in Kacondji grew up without the opportunity to study in a school in their village. We thank and honor Caravan to Class for that school.
Q: What is your message for Caravan to Class and its donors in the U S A?
A: My message is to encourage them to continue their great work in nomad villages.Mali is a poor country. The support of the Foundation is helping us come out of the darkness. We hope they can one day also help all the surrounding villages.
Q: What is your message for parents about sending their children to school?
A: My message is that we leaders of the village must all encourage our kids to go to school. We really suffered about the lack of a school in this village but now that we have one we will do our best to put the school to good use.
Q: What’s your last word?
A: My last word goes to the chief of the village of Kacondji. He is the first responsible person of the village to continue working for the welfare of the village. He must continue to work with parents to help us put the school to good use. I think that in the future children from our school can go on to be the president of Mali.
Afterwards we interviewed the director of the school of Kacondji
Q : Can you please introduce yourself to us?
A : My name is Mahamane Hamadoune Kaya, and I am the director of the School of Kacondji?
Q: Can you explain the condition the school of Kacondji Caravan to Class built a new school?
A: Before the financing of this school, the village of Kacondji had no formal school. We held classes in the homes of parents in the village.
Q: Can you tell us the difficulties you have serving in nomad villages as an educator?
A: There are numerous problems. First of all, our village is on an island in the middle of the Niger River.Most of the time we are confronted by flooding during rainy season…
Q: Are there sometimes difficulties due to the river flooding that causes problems for some students?
A: Of course there are a lot of difficulties during higher water season for kids because sometimes there is no canoe in their camp to help them cross the river so they miss classes or sometimes they come late to school.
Q: How is formal education perceived in conservative nomad villages?
A : Education is perceived well now. People are starting to understand the value of education for their children. I can say this because most parents are now sending their children to school.
Q: What message do you have for the American donors who helped build this school?
A: There is no word to explain my happiness and thanks for the Caravan to Class Foundation. I’m very proud and honored to have this new school and my message for them is to encourage them in their hard work.May God give them opportunities to support villages all over Mali.
To understand the notion of education in the nomad village of Kacondji, I talked to some of the students attending classes in the new school.I met a young girl of 11 years of age,Miss: Zeynabou Souleymana, from a songhoye ethnic group.
Q: How do you feel about studying in a new school?
A: I’m very happy today thanks to this school. Every morning I wake up early in the morning to do my chores and then I go quickly to school.
- Q : What would you like to be in the future?
A: After my studies I would like to be a nurse in order to help my village and parents because villagers don’t have nurses or hospitals.
Q: What chores do you do at home before coming to school?
A: At home I am in charge of the cleaning of the tent and provide water to herds once my brother comes back with cattle every evening.
Q : What message do you have for the American donors?
A: I really thank American donators for building us this beautiful school. We love the school.
I also met a young boy called: Souleymana Hamadoune. He was 12 years old, descendent from a Fulani tribe.
Q What would you like to be after your studies?
A : After my studies I would like to be a teacher in order to help my village.
Q : Is it hard for you to go to school?
A: Yes, it’s very difficult during higher water season because my family tent is situated in an island in the middle of the water so the flooding really affects.
Q : What is your message for American donors and Caravan to Class.
A: I thank them for giving us the chance to study in a new school in our village. We are so happy.
I have a deep connection to the implementation of an educational system on the edge of the Sahara desert. I was born in the desert and I trace my own origins back to nomad settlers of the city of Timbuktu. Today I hold a master’s degree in English literature from the Faculty of Arts, Letters and Humanities at the University of Mali. I believe that all children deserve a quality education. Education has the power to interrupt the cycle of poverty and allows people to fulfill their full potential.
I grew up in the winding streets of Timbuktu. During my childhood I used to follow English-speaking visitors to talk to them and learn English. Most of my books in English come from the United States. What I learned from those books—given to me at an early age really—helps me in my work today. I dream of making an impact in the life of communities in and around Timbuktu. I want to help give opportunities to children to develop their potential because we all need someone to help us find our own path.
I’m actively working to inform nomad parents about the importance of education, the importance of sending little girls to school
, as well as early literacy and also adult literacy. I have dreamed since my childhood about sharing my cultural knowledge with others. Learning English language and about literature has made a real impact on my own life. Caravan to Class is helping me realize my dream.
I will not be satisfied until I can change the hearts of nomad parents so that they will send children to school. I will not be satisfied until Mali can guarantee every nomad child access to quality education. I know we can do better. We must be proactive. We must demand change. We all can do better to make this a better world for all children growing up on the edge of the Sahara desert.
Timbuktu’s, famous world desert festival in exile. Written by EL Hadj Djitteye Editor: Peter Chilson Tuesday, March 15, 2016 01: 55 GMT
the first Festival in the Desert happened near Timbuktu in January 2000, drawing on talent from major traditional Touareg music festivals like the Kidal festival, (Ta-koubelt), and the Timbuktu festival, (Tamakannit). The Festival in the Desert brought musicians from many Touareg clans together and for four days they played traditional songs and performed dances. There was also camel and horse-racing. The festival eventually opened to other cultures, including artists from around Mali, but also from Africa, Europe and the United States.
This festival was organized by several Touareg associations, including Efes and Aitma. They are also working under the sponsorship of other national and international partners.
The last edition of the Festival in the Desert was held in January 2012, again in Timbuktu despite the danger of civil war and the warnings of Western governments that their citizens stay away from the city. Still, Bono, lead singer of the rock group U2,and dozens of European musicians and fans attended the festival anyway.
Since 2012, civil war in the north of Mali has made it impossible for the Festival in the Desert to go on. But Malian musicians, artists and peace activists have found a way to preserve the festival’s spirit. They call themselves the Caravan of Artists for Peace and National Unity and they organized events in Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, and most recently in Bamako, Mali’s capital.
A “festival in exile” was also organized in several European countries. All these music events contributed to the process of national reconciliation and reconciliation of peoples.
The 2016 edition of the Festival in the Desert, supported by the Caravan, ran from Feb. 4 to the 13 February, in segou, Mopti and Bamako, with the exclusive sponsorship of the Malian Ministry of Culture, Crafts and Tourism and the Ministry of National Reconciliation, and the Timbuktu Renaissance Initiative.
One of the co-founders of the original Festival in the Desert was Mr :Manny El Ansary, who is descended from a Touareg marabout family. His efforts to use music and art to promote peace and reconciliation have made him a true ambassador of peace in this country.
In 2012 al Qaeda militants and Toureg separatists took over northern Mali and occupied Timbuktu. The Islamist militants soon fell out with their Tuareg allies. The leaders of the Tuareg insurrection exiled themselves outside Mali, leaving the north of the country to a group of Islamist rebel groups.Those groups banned music and artistic expression in Timbuktu and across the north.
These last four years, despite the exile of the Festival in the Desert from Timbuktu and the lack of security in the north, Ansary organized the Caravan. The Caravan is a collaboration of festivals that are all products of the culture that have developed over centuries in the great bend of the Niger River.
To better understand the efforts to preserve the spirit of the Festival in the Desert, we interviewed Mr Manny El Anssary,
who is helping promote the work of the Caravan of Artists for Peace and National Unity.
————
Q what is the goal for organizing this cultural caravan for peace?
A: In 2012, when northern Mali regions were invaded by Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda and Touareg separatists. Timbuktu was occupied. Music and art were banned.
The musicians from Timbuktu and around the region went into exile. For me, a native of Timbuktu, the loss of music and art was like a clap of thunder. The occupation of 2012 was the worst time of my life. This is true for all Malians.
While I was in exile in a refugee camp in Burkina Faso many people asked me what happened to this beautiful country of Mali and what will be the future of the famous Festival in the Desert? Many people encouraged me to do something because the festival has such a positive image in the world. The festival shared the culture of Mali , the music of Mali, and also the history and culture of Timbuktu. Many people offered to help me.
I started to look for Malian artists and musicians to help me. Many were in refugee camps. I found Haira Arby in Bamako and Fatoumata Diwara. We organized a concert to help explain our sorrow to use traditional music as a catalyst for explaining to the world what happened in this beautiful country.
It’s very important to highlight that a great casualty of the war in Mali is its culture. For example, its music was silenced in the north and music festivals were banned.
After the Festival in the Desert went into exile,I and other Malian musicians and artists were invited in Europe, Asia, the United States, to the Noble Prize Institute in Sweden, and to The Hague in order to talk about the situation in Mali. Malian artists and musicians were in our group, as well as our brothers from the Moroccan Festival of Taragalte.
Our first edition of the Cultural Caravan for Peace started in different refugee camps in Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mauritania in order to bring Malian refugees together to tell their stories. We wanted to spread the word of hope and use traditional desert blues music as catalyst for lasting peace.
In January 2014, I did an interview with France 24 television and the journalist Arney Zaytman. I explained him that today people are killing each other in Mali and that weapons circulate everywhere. We lived through another bad rebellion in the early 1990s.The chaos has pushed local populations into exile. There have been many negotiations and peace treaties in the past. Negotiators meet in expensive hotels, they make a treaty, and then the different sides just go back to killing each other. Even now, today we find ourselves back in a similar situation, following a peace treaty (signed in June 2015 between the Malian government and Touareg separatist groups) that has not completely worked. Still, we continue to work for peace and reconciliation in this Mali. We musicians and artists have our own initiative.
A: This year’s Caravanfor Peace is different of other because it’s the first Caravan we organized after the peace treaty [of June 2015. The treaty was brokered by the government of Algeria and signed in Bamako, Mali’s capital on June 5]. We want this Caravan to accompany the ongoing peace process.
Q Can you explain how the Mali crisis affected the famous Festival in the Desert?
A: The current crisis destroyed The Festival in the Desert. But thanks to its notoriety and the determination of its organizers,its admirers and organizers are working hard for its return.
Because of the current security situation it is too risky to hold the festival at is normal location near Timbuktu. But there is too much insecurity in and around Timbuktu, especially with violent extremism. But we hope things can change. All Malians want the festival’s return.
Q: What is the link between The Festival in the Desert and the Timbuktu Renaissance initiative?
A: This initiative was created to promote the cultural heritage of Timbuktu, including telling the story of the ancient manuscripts of Timbuktu, of the city’s architecture, and its history as a center for the study of Islam. The initiative has been endorsed by thte Malian government and important institutions around the world, including the United Nations.
Q: What’s your message for peace for Mali?
A: Thank you for asking me this question, my message of peace is the same I believe on peace, I remember two years ago when I decided to go towards refugees in different refugees camp people was thinking that we will be lynched because of the crisis, I believe on peace and think that peace will impose itself soon or later.
Q: What’s your last word?
A: I want to thank all our partners, all the supporters of Mali. People must keep hope that the most difficult times is always behind us.
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The 2016 e dition of the Caravan for Peace started in February in the region of Segou, center of the ancient kingdom of the Bambara, in central Mali. Caravan members joined the Music Festival of Segou, The festival brought together musicians from the north and south of Mali to promote cultural exchange and messages of peace.Musical acts included the all female Touareg Tartit and the band Mali-Maroc, which is composed of Moroccan and Malian musicians. Mali- Maroc performed songs of peace, reconciliation, and social cohesion on the edge of the Sahara Desert.
Traveling with the Caravan was a mosaic of young people from many Malian ethnic groups from north to south, east and west. They included artists,musicians, teachers, and journalist, and writers like me. Our only purpose was to meet and talk to local populations of Mali.
On February 6, in Segou, capital of the ancient kingdom of the Bambara, the Caravan held a conference for peace at the town hall. The conference explored the theme of “how to live together on the prospects for lasting peace in Mali.”
During that conference Mr Manny El Ansary, promoter of the Festival in the Desert and main manager of the 2016 Caravan for Peace was among the lecturers. Others included the mayor of Segou ,the organizers of the Segou Music Festival, and several Malian sociologists. Mr. Manny El Ansary talked to conference participants about peace and his travels outside Mali to promote the country’s culture and music.
Malian singers like Haira Arby, the diva of the north of Mali, and the Tartit band lead by the well known Touareg singer, Fadimata Walett Oumar, toured the camps and sang for the refugees. He said many refugees cried tears of joy and hope because singers brought them hope. Touareg women of Mali are also playing a crucial role in this peace process. Fadimata Walett Oumar
has founded her own organization for raising money to help refugees and to spread the word of peace. Women like Fadimata embody the Touareg proverb: “A woman is like the pillar of a tent. If the pillar of the tent falls down, the entire tent will fall down.”
After visiting Segou, the center of the kingdom of Bambara, the Caravan continued south towards the city of Mopti, which is capital of the region of the same name. On February 8 musicians of the Caravan held a concert for peace and also participated in a conference that explored problems of inter-communal conflict that have plagued the region for hundreds of years.
It’s important to not that the Mopti region is where the old Islamist Empire of Macina is situated. Nomad villages sit on the bend of the Niger River, occupied by Fulani cattle herder. They water their cattle and feed them on the grasses of this fertile country. But Dogon and Bozo farming and fishing communities also live in this region hat is so rich in human history. Unfortunately, there is violent conflict among these communities over land and water resources. Farmers complain that animals belonging to Fulani nomad communities trample and eat their crops. Some conflicts end in deaths.
Recently, the growth of a new jihadist terrorist group, the Macina Liberation Front, named for the old empire, has complicated the peace process. The MLF, led by the marabout Ahmadou Kouffa, has been linked to al Qaeda and crimes committed during the 2012 occupation of the northern region of Mali.
Lecturers at the Mopti conference also addressed youths in the audience about the crucial role that youths can play in peace and national reconciliation. Young people have a great deal of energy and potential to help different communities to live together.
I have a long-standing interest in history and in peaceful conflict resolution. This conference helped me see how the nomad and sedentary farming communities both are facing challenges of survival during drought. I also learned that these conflicts have been harming nomad and farming communities for many generations.
After the region of Mopti, the Caravan returned to Bamako on February 10, 2016 where two great concerts for peace were organized to complement a peace conference about : the representatives of refugee’s camp for the framework of the peace treaty in Mali and the return of refugees in their homeland .
The conference was held on Saturday 13, February; 2016 at the International Conference Center in Bamako.
The lecturers was composed by excellence Mr the Minister of national reconciliation, Mr. Zahabi Ould sidi Mohamed,
representatives of refugees camp and teachers.
I have a deep connection to the work of the Caravan. When I was student at the University of Bamako I used to work as international translator and trip planner during holiday breaks. I guided tours of Mali from the Bambara Kingdom historic sites along the Niger River to the high cliffs of the Dogon country. I learned history and culture by explaining the cultural heritage of nomad communities to these visitors from abroad. Today I am using my understanding of history and skills as a communicator to promote peace at different conferences and in meetings with locals around Timbuktu, as well as with people who have been exiled from their homeland in the north.