Virginia Friends of Mali

 

 

February in America is Black History Month, and this will be a theme of this month’s Newsletter .  Black History Month is a great time for teachers to introduce Sunjata the Lion King to their 3rd grade students who will learn about the medieval Empire of Mali (a standard of learning requirement for elementary students in Virginia). Past Issues!

The Richmond Chiwara, November 2022 Très Chers Tous, Salutations à tous nos Ami.e.s à Richmond et à Ségou.  Que Dieu vous bénisse!  We salute all our Friends in Ségou and in Richmond. God bless you all! In this issue:  American Thanksgiving    C’est quoi? Ségou, une ville du Mali    SEGOU, a city in MALI - A series written by  écrit par  Madani Sissoko & Macky Tall et ...  a little visit by Kida!   We were very happy in Richmond to enjoy the visit of Madani Sissoko in early October, coinciding with the commemoration of Gabriel’s rebellion against slavery in favor of freedom. Nous étions fort heureux de recevoir notre ami ‘Kida’ Sissoko début octobre en visite à Richmond, coïncidant avec la commémoration de la rébellion de Gabriel contre l'esclavage en faveur de la liberté. Want more?  Vouloir plus? S'abonner !   Subscribe to The Richmond Chiwara delivered right to your inbox!

Among the many things to love about this video is the photo essay at the opening and closing of the event. "Women Speaking Volumes!" Sister Radio at sisterradio.co #sisterradio #richmondsegou #radiobywomen #womensvoices #wrir #radiosikoro

The City of Richmond has six sister cities: Richmond upon Thames ENGLAND, Saitama JAPAN, Zhengzhou CHINA, Windhoek NAMIBIA, Olsztyn POLAND, and Segou MALI. We stand together in agreement with the following Sister Cities International statement, in solidarity against hatred: Sister Cities International Members and Friends, We are saddened to hear about the continued abuse and violence toward the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities. Heightened by the pandemic, violence towards the AAPI community has been increasing at a frightening rate. While we acknowledge that anti-Asian rhetoric is unfortunately not a new phenomenon, it is discouraging and disheartening to see its terrible effects in our communities. Sister Cities International is an organization that values the building of cultural bridges, and the acts that we are witnessing in this time are much too reminiscent of past mistakes that have hurt communities immensely. The profound harm caused by racism, hate...

 Bonjour nos amis! Ca fait longtemps, n'est-ce pas? We are so pleased to share the announcement that the Sister Radio Project has launched a website! And it is beautiful! Congratulations! Please support! sisterradio.co

SISTER RADIO : The Sister Radio documentary follows the lives of two young journalists working in sister radio stations almost 5000 miles apart. Check it out!! Support it via Patreon. Project site on WRIR: https://www.wrir.org/sister-radio. Documentary Trailer: https://vimeo.com/453065495 VFOM invites you to join us in celebrating the Republic of Mali as it marks the 60th anniversary of independence from its status as a colony of France.  Join us at 1 pm (5 pm Mali time) today on Instagram @ChopSueyBooks for readings and discussion about our Sister Cities Friendship between Mali and Virginia Chop Suey Books' Ward Tef will welcome Ana Edwards, and she, if we're very lucky, will chat with Kadidia Samake Konate from Bamako! She is VCU alumnus who can speak to the experience of being a Malian in Virginia. What is a sister city relationship? How did the sister city get started? Who was involved? Why Segou?  What projects have been done?  Has it been a good thing?

VFOM occasionally posts links to articles we think may help illuminate what is happening in Mali at this moment. We do not claim to endorse the content of these essays but share them for your information. First is a link to our monthly newsletter, The Richmond Chiwara , where we cover topics about people from Mali and Virginia. You will find a Subscribe button there as well. https://us20.campaign-archive.com/home/?u=3fc13b3ee64508366fa23697c&id=e398f1452d The second link is to an essay written on Aug. 18th by our board member, Robin Edward Poulton, and published for TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment . https://www.transcend.org/tms/2020/08/mali-a-history-of-military-bullying-and-corporate-dependency/ The third and fourth links are to posts on a blog called Bridges From Bamako , written by Bruce Whitehouse, a former Peace Corps volunteer and Fulbright Scholar in Mali, who has blogged his views on Mali for many years. Here are two pieces he wrote on Aug. 19th an...

Woman washing clothes and dishes in the refugee camp built in a landfill near the Bamako Airport  where she and her family have lived since escaping the violence back home in the Dogon region. Please assist with A FUNDRAISER FOR THE CAMPS OF DISPLACED PEOPLE FROM THE DOGON REGION OF MALI The  COVID -19 pandemic is spreading across Sub-Saharan Africa, threatening its most vulnerable citizens. In Mali, thousands of villagers have fled the central Mopti region where much of Dogon Country and the Niger River flood plain have come under the control of Islamic extremists.  Hundreds of villages have been ransacked, houses and granaries looted and burned and livestock stolen. Innocent women, children and men have been murdered in an interethnic conflict instigated primarily by outside forces. Many Dogon and Fulani displaced persons from the Mopti region have been living in Bamako for over 3 years in tent camps without toilets or running water.  In such cramped quarters it is...

Ankataa A Youtube channel for Bambara Speakers and Learners Videos for speaking, learning and exploring the Manding language in all of its forms: Bambara, Jula, Malinké, Mandinka. New "Na baro kè" video every month. More info at www.ankataa.com . What I love about these videos is that the instructor takes you around Bamako talking to people about each theme, so you hear the voices of indigenous Bmabara-speakers.  Bambara.org   Don o don, tulo bɛ taa kalan so. Every day, the ear goes to school. "I bisimila !  Welcome to our web site on the Bambara language of Mali,  bamanankan .  Here you'll find resources to help you as you learn this great West African language." A Bambara/Bamanakna lexicon online and in downloadable PDF.   Mali   [màli]  n.pro. Mali. Category: Country. mali   [màli]  n. hippopotame; hippo. Category: Animals - wild.

Virginia Friends of Mali is pleased to announce  .... the publication of an exciting book written by two of our founder members in honor of the 10th anniversary of the sister city relationship between Segou, Mali and Richmond, Virginia, USA. Board Members Ana Edwards and Robin Poulton are in love with the West African country of Mali and the second city of Mali, called SÉGOU, which has made them both Honorary Citizens. The City of Ségou has been twinned with the City of Richmond, Virginia for the past ten years. Many things have been done in Ségou and in Richmond, as a result of this partnership, and the stories the authors tell are very instructive. Ana and Robin have written an amusing and insightful book, published this month in Richmond VA by Brandylane Publishers: Sister Cities: A story of friendship from Virginia to Mali by Ana Edwards & Robin Poulton. Richmond Va: Brandylane 2019. ISBN: 978-1-947860-58-2 A fun story about Richmonders and their Malian...

What a great idea! https://www.latimes.com/world/africa/la-fg-mali-social-network-for-illiterates-20190617-story.html

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts hosted its free Family Day 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, June 8, celebrating the art and culture of Mali. Storytelling and Mudcloth activities with Virginia Friends of Mali , dancing, performances by musician Cheick Hamala Diabate and DJ Mikemetic & the Afro Beta Drummers were featured, along with quilting demonstrations by the Sisters of the Yam African-American Quilters Guild , clay vessel demonstrations by Carren Clarke and woodcut print demonstrations by Dennis Winston . Storytelling in the Library with the Alapini-Sakponou Women had it covered with these two books: The Magic Gourd by Baba Wague Diakite Sundiata: The Lion King of Mali by David Wisniewski At the end of the storytelling, the group talked about the country of Mali, and used a map made of Bogolanfini, a textile decorated with natural leaf and mud dyes. Then they sent their visitors downstairs to the Bogolan making activity!  Mudcloth Demonstra...

Bogolanfini depicting entire bogolan making process, from harvesting cotton to weaving, dying and designing. Click here to watch a small documentary  filmed by the children of the Peep This Segou Film Camp helmed by Dr. Shawn Utsey. The subject of the youth's investigation was the cultural object called Mud Cloth in Segou Mali. The film is as much a document of what they saw and learned but also a testimonial of what can happen when you put cameras in a child's hands. Click here to see how to make bogolan , from the Smithsonian Folk Life website. Click here to see children painting bogolan designs at a local farmers market. The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts will have a free family day 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, June 8, celebrating the art and culture of Mali. Storytelling by Virginia Friends of Mali , dancing, performances by musician Cheick Hamala Diabate and DJ Mikemetic & the Afro Beta Drummers will be featured, along with quilting demonstrations by...

Les 10 journalistes de Radio Sikoro- six a gauche, quatre a droit. The 10 journalists of Radio Sikoro - six on the left, four on the right.  Five finalists (Soummou , Marie , Saran , Massitan , Safiatou)  held a writing conference, a round table in the studio on the theme, "influence of social networks on girls." They went on camera one by one to introduce themselves and describe their motivations.  Today, Andee, Cameron and their Bamako-based assistant, Erika Pomerance (standing in the photo), announced the three finalists:  Marie , Saran , et Massitan!  They said it was difficult to leave anyone out! This group of three will work together until Saturday at noon, when their team leader will be announced as the WRIR intern. Remember, though the intern will travel, all the young women will benefit and are excited about the projects they would like to take on with their new skills.

Cameron and Andee are shown in a video greeting they sent to the group of ten young jounalists who make up the Radio Sikoro half of the Sister Radio project.  Sister Radio is an independent documentary following the partnership between two independent radio stations from two sister cities: WRIR 97.3 fm in Richmond, Virginia and Radio Sikoro in Segou, Mali, as they build a program to educate women in Segou on radio broadcasting and radio production. The program is called Sister Radio in which Radio Sikoro sends an intern to Richmond to learn the elements of radio production under the tutelage of WRIR radio producers. The intern will then go back to Segou where she will relay the knowledge she accumulated to other women interested in making their voices heard through Mali radio. Andee and Cameron arranged for several interviews in advance so they would lose no time getting to work. These shots are from their first interviews in the capital city of Bamako. Khadidia Samake Tour...

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 ...

A 14-page French summary of the Mellen book will be presented in Bamako and Ségou this month, during Robin Poulton’s visit to Mali. The English version is called: The Limits of Democracy and the Postcolonial Nation State: Mali's democratic experiment falters, while jihad and terrorism grow in the Sahara. In French: Le Mali et ses Crises - Les Limites de la Démocratie et l’État-Nation post-colonial: l’expérience démocratique du Mali chancèle, alors que le jihad et le terrorisme se développent au Sahara.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/15/world/africa/trump-shithole-africa.html?emc=edit_tnt_20180116&nlid=35302644&tntemail0=y Trump Comments, Infuriating Africans, May Set Back U.S. Interests By KIMON de GREEF and SEWELL CHAN JAN. 15, 2018 CAPE TOWN — South Africa and Nigeria have joined a chorus of nations condemning President Trump’s inflammatory remarks on immigration, as Africa experts warned that the controversy threatened to set back American interests across the world’s fastest-growing continent. Since Thursday, when several participants in a meeting with Mr. Trump said he had asked why the United States should take in migrants from “shithole countries,” including Haiti and African nations, the Trump administration has been erratic in its account of what happened. On Friday, Mr. Trump insisted on Twitter that “this was not the language used,” and on Sunday, he told reporters , “I’m not a racist.” On Monday, Mr. Trump said that a Democratic senator who attended the meet...