Richmond and Segou Celebrate 10 Years!

Virginia Friends of Mali invites you to follow our activities over the course of 2019, the 10th anniversary of the launch of the sister city relationship between Richmond, Virginia USA and Ségou, Mali.

To mark the occasion, Ségou journalist and publisher, Moustaph Maiga, published a special issue of his newspaper, Le Segouvien, entirely dedicated to the Richmond-Segou relationship and its ten years of collaborative activities. Click here to view Le Ségouvien - Special 2019 Issue.

In the US, February is honored as Black History Month, and this year it coincides with our commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first Africans to the Tsennacommacah territory of the Chesapeake (later to be named Virginia). This is also the month of the year when Ségou celebrates its cultural traditions at a music and arts festival on the banks of the Niger River, their counterpart to our Richmond Folk Festival. And this year, representatives from Richmond and Ségou will come together over the next week, during the Festival Ségou'Art, to jointly mark the anniversary of a relationship intended to honor the historical and cultural relationships between our two cities, our two peoples.

Unable to accept the invitation to share the stage with the mayor of Segou due to Virginia's General Assembly session, Mayor Levar Stoney sent formal greetings and congratulations to the people of Ségou and his counterpart, Mayor Nouhoum Diarra, in a letter that will be read during the ceremonies.

The Richmond delegation includes Robin Poulton of Virginia Friends of Mali, Elizabeth Drumm, a Richmond-based entrepreneur, and the Sister Radio Project team (Andee Arches, Cameron Kit) that will produced a documentary film and facilitate a sister-to-sister radio production exchange program between Radio Ségou and Richmond's WRIR.

Link to the Sister Radio Project at which you will find a trailer.
Link to a YouTube video trailer of the Festival Ségou'Art.