Mali

Want to Experience the Energy at Festival sur le Niger? Watch this

by phil February 20, 2012 Mali

I just returned to Bamako from the Festival sur le Niger in Segou. Most festivals are removed from reality in the best way possible, but this weekend was particularly incredible. I plan on returning every year. This is a clip from Salif Keita’s Saturday night performance. The stage is in the Niger River; the crowd [...]

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Bamako Balani Shows: Streetside Music, Theater and Dance

by phil February 16, 2012 Mali
balani show bamako

Please read this post if you haven’t already. I’m about to talk about block parties in Bamako, but there is still a refugee crisis in the Sahel. A few weeks ago I spent an evening on the most crowded street corner of the quinzambougou neighborhood in Bamako. Chris from Sahel Sounds had invited me to [...]

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2 Easy Ways you Can Help over 20,000 Malian Refugees Right Now

by phil February 7, 2012 Mali

UPDATE 2/10/11: My host family from Timbuktu has made it to Mauritania. They are staying in the border town of Fassala. They are safe. The UNHCR has a camp there and the family reports that they have shelter and (limited) food. People continue to arrive in a steady stream. If anyone knows how to send [...]

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2012 Festival au Désert in Words and Photos + Update from Bamako

by phil February 3, 2012 Mali

I recapped the Festival briefly in this post. The event was over two weeks ago. A lot has changed in northern Mali (and in Bamako, you could say) since then. I will address this to an extent later in the post. I will also list some resources for you to follow. I first traveled to [...]

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Brief Recap of 2012 Festival in the Desert

by phil January 19, 2012 Mali

I’ll have a more substantial post up in the next week. For now.. As of two weeks ago, I didn’t know whether or not I would be attending festival in the desert. Security concerns and cost weighed heavily. But a week or so before the festival, I found myself having some reassuring conversations. I was [...]

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Find me a Country with More Pride

by phil September 8, 2011 Mali
mali pride

I tend to rail on people who generalize about Africa, but I also realize that cultures south of the Sahara have a lot in common. This post from Akila and Patrick, about a cooking class in Zambia, reminded me of that fact. Women append their babies to their backs with vibrant pagnes, vegetables are cut [...]

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