How was Africa?
An American graduate student consciously attempts to preempt some of the problematic and ignorant queries from relatives back home.
Mali
How a coup d’état drove a scholar to social media
Call me a curmudgeon, but I had never really understood the value of social media. I didn’t see the point of mundane tweets and posts on the lives of the glitterati, or the need to share personal views in a public medium. A coup d’état in Mali in March of 2012 rocked this perception and […]
Mali (and France) a year later
A year ago, on January 11, 2013, France launched Operation Serval, sending 4000 troops into Mali. At the time, many supported this intervention. According to one poll, as many as 96% of Malians initially supported the French intervention. A year later, the ‘world’ has largely moved on. The global media is more interested in Hollande’s […]
When Nelson Mandela had an Ethiopian Passport
In April 1962, Mandela traveled on an Ethiopian passport in the name of David Motsomayi. He visited Morocco, Algeria, and Mali.
Mali’s Elections: First Thoughts on Round Two
It's worth remembering that the outcome of this election will represent stability more than change.
While we wait for election results in Mali
Here's a selection of articles that go the extra mile and poke holes in the narrow frame of the "Malian crisis."
Malians educating Malians
SOS Democracy wants to raise voter turnout, educate them on their choices and hold the candidates and government accountable to voters.
The New Yorker Goes to Mali
I do know a bit about Mali, but I hardly recognize The New Yorker's Jon Lee Anderson’s version of it.
Why France doesn’t want to let Aminata Traoré in and Germany allowed her only inside Berlin’s city limits
Malian writer, activist, former member of government Aminata Traoré is unwelcome in France, and, thanks to the ‘open borders’ of the Schengen Area, she is persona non grata in pretty much all of Europe. Another dialogue is possible? Not if you irk les autorités. Traoré was invited to speak at a conference last week, in […]
Welcome to Mali
France's intervention never offered a real solution to any of Mali's problems, but created a set of problems to the ones this country would otherwise have faced.
Mali Needs Heroes–Even Cinematic Ones will do
Ibrahima Touré’s feature film adaptation of Ly’s powerful novel, "Toiles d’araignées" (Spiders’ webs) may be what Mali needs now.
Rap Comes Home
It’s quite a weekend for New York’s prodigal child. Hip-Hop, that burst of youthful energy that was put out into the universe 30 plus years ago is coming back home from several places at once. It’s arriving at a time when Rap music, in its birthplace, confusingly straddles the realms of hyper-capitalism, political activism, youth expression, marginalized’s […]
The bigger question is not why France decided to intervene in Mali, but why America has held off
Stephen W Smith in The London Review of Books:
Timbuktu: It’s like a library has burned
Salafist fighters burned hundreds of rare manuscripts, some of them unique and centuries old, before leaving Timbuktu to French paratroopers.
Afcon 2013 Preview: Bamako expects experienced Mali team to go far
Guest Post by Samira Sawlani* We won’t be surprised if Malians don’t care much for football right now as conflict ravages through the country’s north and east (separatists and Islamists are occupying much of the north of Mali, engaged in a standoff with French and Malian government troops). So I asked a friend who lives […]
France in Mali: The End of the Fairytale
This is not a neo-colonial offensive. The argument that it is might be comfortable and familiar, but it is bogus and ill-informed.
François Hollande went to Algeria
Hollande’s visit coincided with a vote in the UN Security Council authorizing ECOWAS intervention in Mali; something Algeria, Mali's northern neighbor, objected to.
First Thoughts on Mali’s Second Coup
Mali's interim Prime Minister is forced out by soldiers. What that means for Mali’s political future is anyone’s guess, but it doesn’t look good.
Foreign Correspondents and False Notes
Foreign journalists would do well to get their heads around Mali’s crisis, because all signs are that it will be around for a while.
Kickstarter Must be Strong Stuff
When Deacon, a member of the band Animal Collective went to Mali to make an album and ... to end slavery.