The 400-year-old Malian history of Richmond, Virginia

The problem of race in Richmond is greatly accentuated by memories of the American Civil War – rather as Ségou is still struggling with the aftermath of French colonial rule.

AfricaElisabeth DrummNovember 11, 2020Mali, Richmond, Jefferson Davis, Confederacy, Confederate statues, slavery, Gabriel, Lion King, Ana Edwards

Amadou Toumani Touré (ATT) meurt le 10 nov 2020

Former president Amadou Toumani Touré (ATT) died on November 10th 2020 in a Turkish hospital, where he had traveled for a heart operation. He was 72 years old.

AfricaElisabeth DrummNovember 11, 2020Mali, ATT, Amadou Toumani Touré

Women - Farmers of Africa - Produce Milk, not Spare Ribs

“Women are the backbone of Africa” said world music diva Angélique Kidjo on 20th September 2014 in an interview on the TV channel France 24. Yet many foreigners do not see it! The development agencies are guilty (even today) of neglecting women.

AfricaElisabeth DrummNovember 9, 2020Mali, Tuareg, Fulani, Angelique Kidjo, Goddess, agriculture, rural development, Benin

WHAT HAPPENED TO PEACE IN MALI? (Abstract) (2018)

The CENTRAL QUESTION of this paper is to enquire what is Mali’s underlying weakness? (Abstract)

AfricaElisabeth DrummOctober 25, 2020Mali, ACPR, peace, democracy, military rule, National Pact, State without a nation, Tuareg, Sahel

Mort de l’ex-président malien Moussa Traoré (September 2020)

The death of Mali’s ex-president Moussa Traoré in September 2020

AfricaElisabeth DrummOctober 23, 2020Mali, Governance, Moussa Traore

Looking Back at Mali’s bad governance (2020)

I have been in-and-out of Mali since 1980. Back in the early 1980s I lived in Timbuktu, on the edge of the Sahara Desert, helping to rebuild an economy and a society ravaged by drought. Crops had failed, livestock had died,

AfricaElisabeth DrummOctober 23, 2020Mali, Governance, negative peace, military, rural development, starvation, crop failure, Timbuktu, Gao, Kidal, ACORD, NGO

The Lancet Letter on the need for para-medics (2019)

Dartmouth College lecture on PLANETARY HEALTH by Dr Richard Horton: medical knowledge and its distribution throughout Africa

AfricaElisabeth DrummOctober 23, 2020Mali, Africa, Sierra Leone, UN, medicine, health, Lancet

RESPECT FOR ELDERS (2019)

Two grandmothers attending the Ségou Festival on the Niger River in Mali — on a donkey cart.

AfricaElisabeth DrummOctober 22, 2020Mali, Segou, Richmond, elders, grandparents, grandchild, grandmother, donkey cart, music festival, niger river

The Most Vulnerable: Women with AIDS and Islam in Mali (book review) (2017)

An important new book by anthropology professor friend and colleague Dr. Christopher Brooks, Virginia Commenwealth University, reviewed here by Dr Robin Poulton

AfricaElisabeth DrummOctober 22, 2020Mali, aids, christopher brooks, Salim Coumaré, Segou, Islam, vcu, Nyéléni

Women in Mali demand equal role in Peace Accords

Before and after reaching a peace agreement in June, women leaders have been pressuring decision-makers for 50-50 representation in all bodies involved in its implementation. (2015)

Girls as Survivors Following Child Soldiering

Summary of the panel discussion written by Gretchen Gayle and Robin Poulton

Women War & Peace Conference 2013: VFoM with VCU, RSCC and RPEC

AfricaElisabeth DrummOctober 21, 2020Mali, Virginia Friends of Mali, VFoM, VCU, Child soldiers, survivors, USAID, conference, peace conference

Sunjata Lion King OpEd Richmond Times Dispatch by Dana and Robin (2012)

There is a link between Richmond and the lion king — not the Disney cartoon, but the true African story of Prince Sunjata Keita, who lost his throne as a child and returned in 1235 to create the Mali Empire. Many Richmonders came from there.

AfricaElisabeth DrummOctober 21, 2020Mali, Sister City, Segou, Richmond, Lion King, cheick Hamala Diabate, Sunjata, Peacecorps

Allan Levenberg is the guy who made things happen

Allan was the first Friend of Mali, and when we created the association it was Allan who volunteered to be Treasurer. And it was Allan who told us we must transform the Segou relationship into an official Sister City relationship. That was no easy task, for Richmond had no Sister City Commission at the time. It was a period Richmond did not even have a Mayor – until Douglas Wilder was elected in 2005 the first direct mayoral election.

Johanna Sakponou stars in a film on Jamestown (2007)

The Jamestown Foundation called us. A man named Ernest Skinner was putting together a project to celebrate 400 years sine the first ships with English soldiers and settlers arrived in the lands of Powhatan, Virginia and created the Jamestown Settlement with people like John Smith and John Rolfe whose names have become famous in Virginia’s history.

AfricaElisabeth DrummOctober 21, 2020Mali, Virginia Friends of Mali, VFoM, Jamestown, slavery, Angola, Virginia, Angela, John Smith, John Rolfe

FESTIVAL OF THE NIGER RIVER (January 2007)

Allan Levenberg (dit Kouyateh) and Robin Edward Poulton (dit Macky Tall) led a delegation of a dozen VIRGINIA FRIENDS OF MALI to the third Segou music Festival of the Niger River February 1-4, 2007.