Virginia Friends of Mali

Virginia Friends of Mali is organizing the Friday night dinner + concert + dancing for the 200 attendees of the Africa Business Conference . Featuring the music of Papa Susso (kora) Video from 2012 performance at Creighton University Video from concert in Medallin Colombia, Suso with an Afro Columbian poet Balla Kouyate (balafon) Balla Kouyate - Homegrown Museum series, DC, Folklife Festival. About the Conference Virginia Commonwealth University will host the eighth annual Conference on Business and Entrepreneurship in Africa, which will bring together academic researchers, business professionals and government officials from around the world. The conference, “ The Big Emerging Continent: The Rise of Africa – Challenges and Opportunities ,” is sponsored by the Africa Business and Entrepreneurship Research Society and the Center for International Business Advancement in the VCU School of Business . It will be held Oct. 4-7. Through paper presentations, panel...

The Richmond Sister Cities Commission and the Richmond Public Library is sponsoring the Young Artist and Author Showcase...Deadline is the 17th of February 2017. Please encourage Richmond's youth to participate with our Sister Cities. The 2017 Theme: We’re Going Places Sister Cities International aims to promote peace through mutual respect, understanding, and cooperation – one individual, one community at a time. This year’s theme, "We’re Going Places," showcases the importance of travel and exchange in achieving peace. Students are encouraged to draw inspiration from their experience with sister cities, travel, exchange, international friendships, and their goals to present their vision of where the future will lead. The Richmond Sister Cities Commission will provide the following Cash prizes: 1st Place - $100.00 2nd Place - $75.00 3rd Place - $50.00 The 1st Place winners in each category will move onto Sister Cities International Competition with opportu...

Peace Baba (real name Oumar Cissé) is the most famous bead person in Mali. His nickname comes from the fact that he used, for more than 20 years, to take care of Peace Corps volunteers in Mopti Region, whose 'vacation house' was right next to his shop: Farafina Tigne is the name of his museum/shop and the website is fabulously extensive, including a decent travelogue description of the country's major towns and features of interest to tourists. Peace Baba has moved from his small store on the island that is Mopti town, to a larger store in Sevaré beside the main paved Great North Road. Here he has a museum of beads and crafts upstairs, and a fantastic bead shop downstairs. Peace Corps Baba (Baba - Father) is a great man with a magnetic personnality and communicatable English. His beads are SO WORTH WHILE (and such good value). Some Malian beads are 5000 years old. Some were made when Jesus Christ was alive. Some are made from the bones of fish or the nuts of t...