Mali, Guinea: Ali Farka Toure lives on!

Posted by sociolingo on May 8, 2008

I know a lot of you guys already know this, but I am finding out what a rich source of cultural material YouTube is! Whilst trying to get together a post on a Jazz festival in Guinea in honour of the Malian guitarist Ali Farka Toure, who sadly died a couple of years ago, I found a lot of YouTube clips. Born in the village of Nafunke near Timbuktu he never forgot his northern Mali roots, and in fact was ignored for some time in Mali because he was regarded as a ‘northerner’. In 2004 he was elected mayor of Niafunke. He is considered the pioneer of ‘Mali Blues‘ and his jazz style is appreciated all over the world. He won 2 Grammy awards for Talking Timbuktu and again in 2006, for his album in collaboration with another famous Malian musician, Toumani Diabate, In the Heart of the Moon (both links have clips you can play).

I did a little searching. I found this interesting video of the great man, posted by pusanguy, not just playing but giving his thoughts about ‘African Americans’. I hope you find it encouraging!

Well, back to the Jazz festival. According to APA News it is being held in Guinea at the Franco-Guinean Centre. It started on 7th will end on 11th May. The Guineans are honouring Farka Toure

because had given up attending a cultural festival in Nice, France, where he was to earn €80,000, to take part in the 2nd edition of the Jazz Festival

The following link can only be listened to through YouTube, I can’t embed it. But is is such a seminal recording of Farka Toure I really wanted to bring it to your attention. It was recorded at the Segou festival in 2005. The other instrument being played is the Ngoni or xalam and is played by Bassekou Kouyate. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSWuzp_0hn4&feature=related

African blogs: The 52nd Venice Biennale: The African Pavilion and Malick Sidibé’s Achievement

A new blog, The Face of Afrika, is aiming to focus on positive  news celebrating the continent of Africa.  Please support this initiative.

One recent post about The 52nd Venice Biennale: The African Pavilion and Malick Sidibé’s Achievement caught my eye:

The Venice Biennale’s prestigious Golden Lion lifetime achievement award was presented to Malick Sidibé, from Mali. The artist made history. Not only was he the first photographer to be so honored but Sidibé was the first African artist to ever win the award.

Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement:
Malick Sidibé, born in Soloba, Mali, in 1936. Lives and works in Bamako, Mali.

Photo credit AFP

Read the full post

Mali human rights: New family law debated

Cross-posted from Sociolingo’s Mali

Posted by sociolingo on May 2, 2008

The following article shows some aspects of Mali democracy in action.  It seems to be a tenet of Mali democracy that all interested parties have a say and are consulted in the drafting of legal documents. However, having a ’say’ or being able to express and opinion does not necessarily mean that demanded changes will be agreed. In this case some Islamic organisations are opposing a family law bill particularly in the areas of inheritance and the recognition of religious marriages.

The family law bill, which was first drafted back in 1996, is being hotly debated at the moment in Mali. It ratifies international protocols that Mali has already signed up for including the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, and the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. The driving force behind the latest attempt to get this bill passed is a group of women parliamentarians who have got together with lawyers and human rights activists and are  pushing this bill back to prominence again.

Source: IRIN NEWS

MALI: New family law faces opposition from Muslim organisations

BAMAKO , 2 May 2008 (IRIN) - A new family law code waiting to be adopted by Parliament is facing opposition from some Islamic groups who claim it goes against Islamic principles, particularly when it comes to proposed changes to the country’s marriage laws.

The new code aims to bring more equality between men and women in relation to marital status, parental rights, ownership of land and inheritance, wages and pensions, employment laws and education.

“The code is a significant step towards gender equality while reflecting the reality of Malian culture today,” the minister of women, children and the family, Maiga Sina Damba told IRIN.

The current code has seen little change since it was first passed in 1962, three years after Mali gained independence, and according to Oumor Cissé, communications adviser at the ministry for women, children and the family, it is heavily influenced by “outmoded” French laws, and a strict reading of Koranic texts.

Opposition

When the draft code went out to civil society groups for the latest round of consultations in early 2008, some Islamic groups started campaigning hard against the proposed changes to marriage laws, inheritance laws and property rights.

In early April the Islamic Salvation Association (AISLAM) called for the bill to be withdrawn from Parliament.

“All the proposals we made in the consultation phase of the new code were rejected,” said Mohamed Kimbiri, president of AISLAM.

The most controversial sticking points relate to shifts in marriage laws. Today in Mali traditional or ‘religious marriages’ as opposed to civil marriages, are legally accepted but the new code will cease to legally recognise religious marriages.

“Despite much opposition to this change, legalising religious marriages has been dropped from the bill altogether,” Kimbiri complained to IRIN.

But Parliamentarian Mountaga Tall elected in Segou a town north of Bamako, said religious or ‘traditional’ marriages deny some women their basic rights.

“Widows who have only had a traditional marriage are legally excluded from any inheritance rights and their children must go through expensive, lengthy and often humiliating procedures to inherit the basic family allowances due to them.”

In defiance of the soon-to-be-adopted law, Islamic groups are continuing to issue marriage certificates.

“For the moment, the issue is unresolved. But if [these marriages] go ahead it will be in violation of the law, and the marriage certificate will not be legal. No one can appropriate a power that is not legally bestowed,” said Cissé.

Further controversy

In another vein, under the current law when two people marry if they commit to monogamy they must stick to it in theory, but in reality a husband can re-marry without the consent of his wife.

“Men can circumvent the law by making a new marriage without any legal consequences,” said Daouda Cissé, a legal adviser to the women’s ministry.

The code also gives more inheritance rights to illegitimate children, and enables them to choose either their mother’s or their father’s name, but according to Kimbiri, “Islam can not accept that. [Illegtimate children] can only inherit their mother’s name, they do not have a right to their father’s.”

And finally, some clerics are concerned about changes the new code makes to giving couples joint rights to land and property - currently separate rights are maintained for property. But one Imam told IRIN, “under Islamic law spouses must accept separation of ownership of possessions.”

Compromise solution?

The code has already faced many delays and some fear it will stagnate altogether. Redrafting began in 1996 but it was slow to gain momentum in Parliament.

“Many Parliamentarians didn’t want to see change. or else they didn’t bother to read it,” Oumor Cissé told IRIN.

But in 2007 a group of women Parliamentarians - there are about a dozen, said Cissé - formed a group with lawyers and human rights activists to defend the code’s changes and to push it through Parliament.

“If Mali wants to be a fully-functioning democracy it is important to pass this code,” Omar Touri, head of a women’s rights network, Association of Women’s NGOs (CAFO), told IRIN. “People have to change their behaviour and they have to accept change.”

The code brings Mali in line with a number of international protocols it has signed up to, including the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, and the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

Given this, she said, “We have no choice but to pass it.”

But Abdoulaye Dembélé, deputy of the National Assembly, thinks it much more likely that a compromise deal will have to be struck, ensuring yet more delays.

“In this atmosphere of misunderstanding it is difficult for deputies to vote for this code at the risk of provoking a mass-uprising. We have to take into account the concerns and aspirations of all groups before passing it through Parliament.”

sd/aj/nr

[END]

© IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis: http://www.irinnews.org

Special IRIN Zimbabwe coverage: http://www.irinnews.org/InDepthMain.aspx?InDepthId=71&ReportId=77476

[This item comes to you via IRIN, the humanitarian news and analysis service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations or its Member States. Reposting or reproduction, with attribution, for non-commercial purposes is permitted. Terms and conditions: http://www.irinnews.org/copyright.aspx

MALI: Combating malaria misdiagnosis

Source: IRIN NEWS

MALI: Combating malaria misdiagnosis

BAMAKO, 1 May 2008 (IRIN) - Health experts say the majority of malaria cases in Mali are misdiagnosed, which causes resistance to malaria drugs and leaves other illnesses untreated.

“When people are sick in Mali, the doctor will usually tell them they have malaria whether or not they test for it,” said Fatou Faye, an infectious diseases researcher and trainer at a privately funded medical laboratory, the Charles Merieux Centre in Bamako.

“The patients then buy anti-malarial in the street and build up a resistance to treatment.”

As a result, according to research by Dr. Imelda Bates at the Malaria Knowledge Project (MKP), (LINK) part of the Liverpool University School of Tropical Medicine, this means people miss other causes of feverish illness such as pneumonia and meningitis, which can cause further illness and even death.

Economic productivity is also affected, and misdiagnosis can deepen poverty due to prolonged illnesses and money being wasted on the wrong drugs.

Malaria is the most prevalent disease among Malian children under five years old according to George Dakono coordinator of with the national project to fight against malaria.

“Shocking levels” of misdiagnosis

The discrepancy between real and assumed cases has reached “shocking” levels all over Africa according to the MKP.

Malaria diagnostics in Mali rely on expensive equipment which most health clinics, particularly in rural areas, cannot afford and do not have the trained staff to use, Michel Vam Herp an epidemiologist with non-governmental organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Belgium, told IRIN.

As a result most doctors “make assumptions based on suspicion,” he said, leading to over-treatment of malaria cases.

Further, according to Dakono and Faye, most people who develop a fever in Mali do not visit a health clinic at all either because they live too far away, or are unwilling to pay up to US$0.95 for a consultation. They self diagnose and treat instead.

Up to 70 percent of cases of feverish illness in children are diagnosed and treated at home according to the MKP.

Laboratories the ‘gold standard’

Mali needs more and better-equipped laboratories to combat mass misdiagnosis, according to Faye.

Valentina Buj, a health project officer with the World Health Organization (WHO) said “blood smear-tests in a laboratory are the gold-standard in malaria diagnostics.”

But the majority of the 82 government-run laboratories around the country lack the right equipment and trained technicians to diagnose malaria, according to Faye.

The Charles Merieux Foundation has set up a diagnostics laboratory in Bamako to diagnose malaria and other infectious diseases, train technicians from health clinics around the country how to use diagnostic equipment and run a lab, and with European Union funding, to equip labs around the country. Its aim is to replicate standards found in French laboratories.

“We want to create a situation that for the majority of diseases they encounter, they can accurately diagnose them themselves,” Faye said.

Rapid diagnostic tests

But for MSF’s Vam Herp, laboratories are not the answer to improving malaria diagnostics in rural Mali where clinics and laboratories are few and far-between.

“We need simple, low-technology malaria test kits, rather than buying more expensive equipment and carrying out in-depth trainings which is hard to do in rural areas,” he told IRIN.

For him the answer is to get rapid diagnosis tests or ‘RDT’s, which are small, easily transported and cost on average US$0.45, to community health workers throughout the country so they can test people village by village. ARTICLE LINK TO 74816

“The test takes 15 minutes to produce results and it takes half a day to train a community health worker how it’s used,” said Vam Herp, “they are the only options for diagnosis at the household level.”

The test is simple - if a person has malaria, chemicals in the test react to a product produced by the malarial parasite in their blood, causing a red strip to appear fifteen minutes later. And where MSF has distributed them, the number of patients seeking diagnosis for malaria has increased from one in four to 100 percent.

Taking the kits country-wide is a challenge in Mali — they require a long shelf-life, sophisticated distribution systems, and their results are unreliable in temperatures of over 30 degrees Celsius, which is Mali’s average temperature. “The technology still needs to be finessed,” Buj said.

MSF nonetheless says it plans to expand its programme, which currently is diagnosing 80,000 people in malaria-prone regions, across the country alongside the government.

Funding

With simple technology, improving diagnostics does not have to be expensive - it would take US$61 million to cover Mali’s diagnostic needs according to Vam Herp - but it requires the government and donors to take it more seriously.

The first step, according to the MKP is cost-benefit analyses to map out malaria prevalence, resistance patterns, and clinics capacity to analyse which diagnostics approach is better - rapid tests or improving labs.

International donors have stepped in to improve Mali’s efforts to fight malaria with US$126 million from the George Bush foundation and the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis committed over five years, but critics say not enough of this money targets diagnostics.

“The Ministry of Health is already subsidising medicines, staff salaries and building health centres, and international funds are coming in, so why shouldn’t it start subsidising diagnostics fees as well?” asked Vam Herp.

According to a health practitioner in a government clinic in Fana, a town north of Bamako, “if the government does not support diagnostics, its other efforts will fall flat.”

WHO’s Buj is positive Mali is going in the right direction. “When it comes to. diagnostics, the situation is definitely getting better in Mali,” she said.

aj/nr
[END]

© IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis: http://www.irinnews.org

Special IRIN Zimbabwe coverage: http://www.irinnews.org/InDepthMain.aspx?InDepthId=71&ReportId=77476

[This item comes to you via IRIN, the humanitarian news and analysis service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations or its Member States. Reposting or reproduction, with attribution, for non-commercial purposes is permitted. Terms and conditions: http://www.irinnews.org/copyright.aspx

African archaeology book: The African Archaeology Network

Source: African Book Collective

The African Archaeology Network

Reports and a Review

Edited by Felix Chami, Gilbert Pwiti

The first in the book series Studies in the African Past was published in 2001, consisting of reports produced by the archaeology research project, ‘Human Responses and Contribution to Environmental Change’. The new research initiative developed out of this project is known as the ‘African Archaeology Network’. This is investigating how ancient African societies exploited resources, developed settlements and established long-distance trade networks. A pan-African project, it aims to develop new models to understand how ancient communities adjusted and responded to political and environmental upheavals; and to demonstrate the potential for more research in the different areas of African archaeology.

Consisting of ten chapters, this volume includes nine scientific reports and one review emanating from Mali, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, the Island of Mafia in Tanzania, Mozambique, Namibia, Madagascar and Zimbabwe. Topics covered include: dense ancient settlements along the Sahara desert; mappings of historical settlements in south-west Nigeria; excavations of the areas around Lake Victoria in Uganda; ancient iron industries; evidence of the domestication of animals and the importation of goods into Tanzania from India and the Nile Valley in the Neolithic age; contact with early European traders and travellers from 160, and how these paved the way for the extension of the western European system into African communities; and hunter- gather and pastoral adaptive strategies in the Namib desert.

ISBN 9789976604085 | 200 pages | 244 x 170 mm | 2005 | Dar es Salaam University Press, Tanzania | Paperback

Available from the African Book Collective

£21.95

Mali: African hibiscus harvest success story

Source:http://www.herbs.org/current/hibworld.html

African hibiscus harvest success story

Over the past two years, HRF has been working with the Africa Bureau of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to develop a test crop of hibiscus (Hibiscus sabdariffa) in Mali, West Africa, one of the world’s poorest nations. During his five-week trip to Africa last fall, HRF president Rob McCaleb was able to see for himself the positive impact that HRF’s hibiscus growing project has had on the lives of hundreds of Malian farmers, their families, and their communities. The project has provided a source of much needed training and income for more than 1,000 people, who were able to improve cultivation and processing methods to meet strict international standards for quality and cleanliness of the hibiscus crop.

Hibiscus, one of America’s most popular tea ingredients, was chosen for the project because it is easy to cultivate, has excellent market potential, and can provide a good return without major capital investment. The success of the project has surpassed expectations on many levels. “Our primary goal was to help the farmer,” said McCaleb. “The secondary goal was to improve the quality of the product, which also helps the farmer.” HRF introduced an inexpensive, easy-to-make hand tool that greatly increased the efficiency of harvest and handling. Faster processing resulted in a better quality product, which in turn commanded a higher price on both the local and international markets.

This year, the project involved 280 farmers practicing subsistence farming in remote areas of the Niger River Valley. Next year, project participants hope to produce twice as much hibiscus, involving more farms and twice as many people as last year. Right now, HRF is inviting herb companies interested in socially and environmentally conscious herb development to support the project. Companies can participate by contracting with farmers to grow herbs, by agreeing to purchase crops, or by providing technical assistance, seeds, specifications, or funding.

In the future, herbs promise to be one of the most valuable cash crops for hundreds of farming families in the Niger River Valley, as well as a source of high quality, organically grown herbs for the worldwide botanicals market. Thanks to the Africa Bureau of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the agribusiness consulting firm Ronco, and Celestial Seasonings for their support of this important project.

Plans to undertake a similar growing project in South Africa are now underway. Three main challenges exist in South Africa: to help protect wild plant populations through cultivation of over-collected species used in traditional medicine, to foster regional production of traditional herbal remedies, and to develop cash crops for low-income farmers. HRF’s goal is to work with disadvantaged farmers on growing projects that will generate income from herbal cash crops as well as provide improved access to low cost botanical medicine. Other participants in the South African growing project include USAID and The Rural Foundation, a South African nonprofit group. HRF News, Spring, 1997.

Mali: IMF Country Report 08/113

Posted by sociolingo on March 27, 2008

Country Report No. 08/113: Mali: Sixth Review Under the Three-Year Arrangement Under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility and Request for Waivers of Nonobservance of Performance Criteria and Request for Extension of Commitment Period - Staff Report; Press Release on the Executive Board Discussion; and Statement by the Executive Director for Mali

http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.cfm?sk=21840.0

Mali: Austrian hostages - update 28-03-08

Posted by sociolingo on March 28, 2008

Source: AlertNet

Tuareg politician says hostages not in Mali-report

28 Mar 2008 11:28:47 GMT

<!– 28 Mar 2008 11:28:47 GMT ## for search indexer, do not remove –>

Source: Reuters

VIENNA, March 28 (Reuters) - A Malian Tuareg politician said in an interview published on Friday that two Austrian tourists held captive by al Qaeda in the Sahara were not in the country, as previously suspected. Assarid Ag Imbarcaouane, a member of the National Assembly, told Austrian daily Oesterreich that nomadic Tuareg tribesman who roam the isolated swathes of northern Mali would be aware if the hostages were present. The kidnappers would need fuel for vehicles and would get it from smugglers, who would tell the Tuaregs, he said. “They are not in Mali. I would know and our President (Amadou Toumani Toure) would know.”

Read the full story 

Source: BBC NEWS

More than a month after their disappearance, the fate of two Austrian hostages who were captured while touring the Tunisian desert remains shrouded in uncertainty.

But the case has exposed the difficulty of controlling the vast expanses of the Sahara as al-Qaeda’s North Africa affiliate seeks to make its presence felt across the Maghreb.

Read the full story

Source: The Times

25-03-08

VIENNA - Austria is pressing on with talks to free two nationals seized in northern Africa by an Al-Qaeda linked group after the weekend expiry of a deadline set by the kidnappers, an official said on Monday.

“We have more time for talks,” foreign ministry spokesman Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal told AFP. “We’re continuing all our efforts with all our contacts in the region.”

He however refused to confirm media reports that the deadline was being pushed back by three days.

Full report

Source: Alert Net

al Qaeda says Austrian hostages have a week more -Web

17 Mar 2008 21:13:00 GMT

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON, March 17 (Reuters) - An al Qaeda affiliate holding two captured Austrians has extended by one week, to midnight on Sunday, its deadline for Austria to meet its demands, according to an Internet posting monitored on Monday. Austria had said on Sunday the deadline had been extended for an unspecified time. The U.S.-based terrorism monitoring service SITE Institute said Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb posted the note to Jihadist forums. In a SITE translation, the group said the extension was “the final opportunity from the Mujahideen to absolve their responsibility before the families of the two hostages and the Austrian people, and to allow adequate time for the state of Austria to respond to the legitimate demands.” It warned that any military attempt to free the two would lead to the “immediate execution” of the kidnapped.

Read the full article

Source: Reuters

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Two Austrian tourists abducted in Tunisia and believed to be held by al Qaeda’s north Africa wing have been moved by their kidnappers to Mali, an Algerian newspaper said on its Web site on Tuesday.

Ennahar quoted sources as saying the couple had been taken across the Sahara desert by an armed group from al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and reached the Sahel region after a four-day journey through the area between Algeria and Libya.

“Ennahar obtained information that the group has already returned to its bases in the Sahel on the territory of the republic of Mali,” said the site, which specializes in security.

There was no immediate word from Algerian authorities on the kidnapping of the couple, named by relatives as tax consultant Wolfgang Ebner, 51 and his companion, Andrea Kloiber, 43.

Analysts said the fact the kidnappers had announced the abduction suggested they were ready to negotiate and pointed out that the group had seized hostages to raise money in the past.

Read the full article

Mali: Big attack by Tuareg rebels 28-3-08

Posted by sociolingo on March 28, 2008

Source: BBC NEWS

Tuareg rebels in Mali have reportedly staged one of the biggest attacks against government forces since they resumed their insurgency last August.

The rebels ambushed a military convoy, capturing at least 20 soldiers and seizing as many as eight vehicles, reports from Mali say.

The attack took place near the town of Abeibara in the remote desert region of eastern Mali.

Between 40 and 60 soldiers were travelling in the convoy.

Among the vehicles seized by the rebels were two armoured personnel carriers.

Military officials were quoted as saying that 20 soldiers had been captured in fighting on Thursday, while other reports put the number of those taken hostage at more than 30.

Three soldiers and five civilians are reported to have been killed since the most recent violence began.

Fighting between government forces and Tuareg rebels continued on Saturday, Tuareg sources told the AFP news agency.

It is taking place in the north of Mali’s Kidal region, where two Austrian tourists seized last month in Tunisia are reportedly being held by Islamic extremists.

The rebels led by Ibrahim Ag Bahanga, who captured about 30 Malian troops in August 2007 despite a peace deal signed in neighbouring Algeria in 2006.

The last of those troops were released in March after mediation by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, AFP reported.

The Tuareg are an historically nomadic people living in the Sahara and Sahel regions of north Africa.

Tuareg militants in Mali and Niger have been engaged in sporadic armed struggles for several decades, demanding greater regional autonomy and a greater share of national resources.

Mali: Jatropha Oil Lights Up Villages

Source: WorldWatch

Eye on Mali: Jatropha Oil Lights Up Villages

–> Alana Herro – June 1, 2007 – 5:00am

The Jatropha curcas plant.
Photo by R. K. Henning

Some 700 communities in Mali have installed biodiesel generators powered by oil from the hardy Jatropha curcas plant to meet their energy needs, according to Reuters. The Malian government is promoting cultivation of the inedible oilseed bush, commonly used as a hedge or medicinal plant, to provide electricity for lighting homes, running water pumps and grain mills, and other critical uses. Mali hopes to eventually power all of the country’s 12,000 villages with affordable, renewable energy sources.

The landlocked West African nation, at the southern edge of the Sahara desert, is seeking to boost the standard of living of its 80-percent-rural population and to reduce migration from impoverished rural areas. “People have to have light, to have cool air, to be able to store vaccines, even to watch national television,” Aboubacar Samake, head of the jatropha program at the government-funded National Centre for Solar and Renewable Energy, told Reuters. “As things stand, a snake can bite someone in a village and they have to go to [the capital] Bamako to get a vaccine.”

Energy self-sufficiency is another goal of the program. Private international companies have offered to develop the jatropha industry in Mali, but were told the biofuel would not be approved for export until the country’s domestic energy needs were met. Standard diesel and other imported fossil fuels can be costly to transport to remote villages and are unaffordable for much of the nation’s population. Jatropha provides an inexpensive, local source of fuel, with the plant’s seeds containing about 35 percent oil.

Because jatropha can be grown on arid land, requires little care, and can help prevent erosion, it is more likely to complement than compete with food crops—a common concern with many biofuels. “They came to explain the project to us and said that if we grow jatropha it can produce oil to make the machine work,” said Daouda Doumbia, an elder in the Malian village of Simiji, which was recently outfitted with a biodiesel generator. “I grow groundnuts, and thi