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Douane Stop

Segou is a historically important city.  It served as the capitol city for the Bambara Empire and the French Colonial era.  Since Mali’s success on the international music stage, the city has become popular for its annual music festival where musicians perform just off shore on a special barge.  To get there, we left the capitol city of Bamako and headed northeast and arrived in Segou about 3 hrs. later.  The road to Segou is peppered with douane stops where a small toll is collected for the privilege of continuing on.  These stops are opportunities for travelers to buy food and drink from the local women who offer prepared snacks for sale.

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With its clear air and warm nights, Mali has always had a rich musical heritage. This heritage comes, in part, from the cultural melding that occurred during the Mandingue Empire where entertainers of the day, the griot, would bring musical styles from across West Africa to be played for the king. More recently, Mali has seen a string of musicians gain success on the international stage.  The father of  the popular “desert blues” style,  Ali Farka Toure, died in 2006 but his success paved the way for many artists including Salif Keita, Mangala, Bassekou Kouyate and Amadou & Mariam. If you are looking to expand your musical horizons, any of these artists are worth a listen.

Welcome to Mali

To get you started, Chicago Public Radio’s Sound Opinions recently reviewed the March 24th release by Amadou & Mariam, Welcome to Mali.  You can listen to the show’s entire podcast, or simply fast forward to the review of Welcome to Mali starting at the 45:58 mark. The show’s music review segment features a Siskel & Ebert format where two reviewers compare notes.  They give this release a double thumbs up – way up.  To explore further, this release is currently featured as an online exclusive at the Rhapsody.com music service where you can play up to 25 free tracks per month.  Also, they’ll be touring the U.S. on their own this spring and then with Coldplay this summer.

Enjoy! Ed.

"Democracy Now" (on left) and "To dare to fight is to dare to conquer" (on right)

The spirit of a people

Tribute to the Martyrs - "B" side

So why does Mali matter, anyway?  I think a stable country on a volatile continent is something significant and worth paying attention to.  On a personal level though, I am inspired by the events that took place on Mali’s road to independence.  It is a testimony in our time of a people fighting for their voice to be heard and their eventual triumph over years of injustice.  Yet none of this was brought on by any external influence or power.  Rather, it is the spirit of the Malian people and their desire to govern themselves that sparked the events of that fateful Friday in 1991 …  read more »

GIANT MAP OF MALI (yes, that's me)

Oh the confusion!

The location of the West African country of Mali is little known.  When I try to explain where Mali is, most people have never heard of it.  Sometimes it helps to make it clear where Mali is not.  The name that comes to the mind of many is the tropical island of Maui, one of the Hawaiian Islands.  Mali is not Maui.  It ain’t Malawi either. Incredibly enough, even some post offices around the world haven’t heard of Mali.  The people I know who live there tell stories of mail being lost for weeks because it was first routed to the country of Malawi — a different African country more than 3500 miles away! read more »