Final Edition
The Richmond Chiwara
Newsletter of the Virginia Friends of Mali
December 2023
our 50th edition:
looking back at 20 years of Virginia Friends of Mali
Please enjoy this long and very special Chiwara edition!
Dear Friends of Mali -- Très Chers Amis tous et Amies toutes
This is our final edition of the CHIWARA - c’est notre dernier CHIWARA
This 50th edition of our RICHMOND CHIWARA will be the last, mainly because Mailchimp, the newsletter program we are using, increased its fees significantly. We we prefer to invest our modest funds in SEGOU projects, supporting girls and educating Virginians, rather than enriching an internet corporation.
Our 50th edition celebrates 20 years of partnership with SEGOU, the sister city of Richmond VA …. and our partnership continues. Our 501.c.3 association Virginia Friends of Mali (VFoM) will continue to support friendships between America and Mali, and the whole of West Africa. Richmond Sister Cities Commission (RSCC) will continue to support international exchanges with Ségou and the other sister cities because - as President Eisenhower stated when he created Sister Cites International (SCI) - people will be less likely to make war if they know the people and create friendships in the countries America may wish to attack. SCI was created to promote peace. Don’t we need more peace? We sure do!
We very much hope, Dear Reader, that you will continue to support our work. And please tell people how to find the archive of our RICHMOND CHIWARA, where you and they can find stories about the Lion King and the Medieval Empire of Mali ; profiles of remarkable African women; analyses of our 400 years of shared history, slavery and military statues; and quite a lot of Ségou history and stories as well.
As always, we welcome and look forward to your comments and responses.
We wish you all a very happy and healthy 2024.
THE EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
Elisabeth Drumm
Robin Poulton
Ana Edwards
Madani Sissoko
You can consult previous editions in the archive:
https://us20.campaign-archive.com/home/?u=3fc13b3ee64508366fa23697c&id=e398f1452d
or at the VFoM website: http://vafriendsofmali.org/
or at the VFoM blog https://virginiafriendsofmali.blogspot.com/
CHIWARA is the symbol we have chosen for our association Virginia Friends of Mali: this mask is half-antelope and half-lion, or half-animal and half-man, symbolizing the transformation of Mankind from a nomadic society of hunter-gatherers
to a settled civilization of farmers and herders. While the mane is obviously from a lion, we believe that the horns are inspired by the Abyssinian Ibex, the most elusive trophy for an African hunter seeking prestige in early human society: for we all came out of Africa. Ibex + Lion + Farmer (bending to hoe the soil): an image of man’s triumph. You can find out more about this mask in Chiwara No. 33 (July 2022).
There are normally a pair of Male and Female Chiwara masks, (always with a baby) and they are danced at agricultural ceremonies associated with planting, fertility and prosperity. The pair in our photo belong to Virginia Union University and were loaned to Virginia Friends of Mali for our exhibitions in the beautiful art nouveau hall of Richmond Public Library.
Malian Ambassadors have been regular visitors and supporters of our work over the past 20 years.
Every year we celebrate Mali’s national day on September 22nd and in 2023 we were honored to receive H.E. Ambassador Sékou Berthé in Richmond. He met with VFoM and with students of Virginia Commonwealth University who presented in French their research projects on Mali. Here is Ambassador Berthé with VFoM vice-president Ana Edwards, artist, historian, and educator who co-authored our book Sister Cities that tells the story of Richmond and Ségou.
S.E. l’ambassadeur Sékou Berthé avait visité Richmond le 22 septembre 2023 pour célébrer avec nous le jour national du Mali. Il avait visité la Virginia Commonwealth University pour y rencontrer des étudiants qui lui avaient présenté leurs projets sur le Mali et sur la langue française.
Voici l’ambassadeur avec Mme Ana Edwards, vice-présidente des Amis du Mali en Virginie, une artiste et historienne qui est co-auteure du livre Sister Cities sur le jumelage Ségou-Richmond.
Let’s remember some previous Mali celebrations in Richmond, Virginia
We started VFoM with a Prime Minister: His Excellency Mr Oumsmane Issoufi Maiga, seen here on 5th November 2005, came to Virginia with Ambassador Abdoulaye Diop (currently Mali’s Foreign Minister). Between them is VFoM founder president Dr Robin Edward Poulton.
The Richmond-Ségou Sister City relationship was created by Ambassador Abdoulaye Diop (wearing blue damask) who visited Richmond with then-prime minister Ousmane Issoufi Maiga (wearing brown). Ambassador Diop had opened our Mali exhibit at the Richmond Public Library in November 2005 and he wanted the PM to meet Virginian school and college students.
Le JUMELAGE Richmond-Ségou avait été initié par Son Excellence Abdoulaye Diop, actuel ministre des affaires étrangères qui était Ambassadeur à Washington en 2005. S.E. Monsieur Diop (en bleu) était venu à Richmond avec le premier ministre S.E. Monsieur Ousmane Issoufi Maiga (en bazin marron). Entre les deux est assis le Dr Robin Poulton dit Macky Tall, des Amis du Mali. H.E. Diop avait inauguré notre exposition sur le Mali en 2005.
The 9/11 trauma created a lot of anti-Islam prejudice in USA, based on ignorance. We began Teaching Timbuktu to re-frame Islam within its non-violent African historical context: Timbuktu, in Mali, was the first great university. We exhibited Malian artifacts for African-American studies and supported Mali’s SOL for 3rd Grade students in Virginia.
Après 9/11 on cherchait à changer l’image américaine de l’Islam, s’appuyant sur l’histoire de Timbuktu et son université de la paix au Nord Mali, enrichant les études africaines-américaines et les cours sur le Mali dans l’enseignement primaire en Virginie.
Madam My Lan Tran was president of the Richmond Sister Cities’ Commission when Ségou became a Sister City. She is with Allan Levenberg, a Commissioner and Treasurer of Virginia Friends of Mali, and two of the Malians who have done the most to promote our Sister City Relationship: Mr Madani Sissoko and former Ségou Mayor Ousmane Simaga (on the left, wearing white).
Au moment de la création du Jumelage, la présidente de la Commission de Jumelage à Richmond était Mme My Lan Tran, ici avec le Commissaire Allan Levenberg (en vert, Trésorier des Amis du Mali en Virginie) et avec les responsables à Ségou: MM Madani Sissoko et Ousmane Simaga, Maire de Ségou.
Since we created the Richmond-Ségou Sister City relationship more than 15 years ago, we have met several mayors. Here is a picture of the current mayors meeting in Richmond: Mayor Levar Stoney being dressed in magnificent Malian robes by his Ségou counterpart (in green) Mayor Nouhoun Diarra. On the other side is Ségou’s deputy mayor for education Madame Sako, Djeneba Haïdara. Plusieurs maires ont vu le Jumelage. Voici les titulaires actuels : le Maire Nouhoun DIARRA habille le Maire Levar Stoney lors d’une visite à Richmond.
We have celebrated Mali’s national day in many different ways over the past 15 years, with a party or with a lecture about West Africa. In 2013 we celebrated Mali with a major conference on WOMEN WAR & PEACE, in partnership with Virginia Commonwealth University and the Richmond Peace Education Center. This was one of the most high-profile events that Virginia Friends of Mali and the Richmond Sister Cities Commission have organized. The conference on Women War & Peace brought together 800 VCU students, and faculty members from 14 different universities (including Ségou and Bamako in Mali), with a focus on peace in Mali and Liberia.
Nous avons fêté le jour national du Mali de façons variées depuis 15 ans, souvent par une soirée dansante et parfois avec un conférence = comme par exemple en 2013, sur le thème des femmes et la paix au Mali et au Libéria.
Some VCU students told us that this experience changed our lives.» As educators, that is pretty well what we hope to hear. The papers of this conference can be consulted for free at : https://sites.google.com/a/vcu.edu/2013-peace-conference-site/
The problems of health, and the peace building experiences of women in Mali and Liberia were highlighted durng the conference. Abigail Disney came in person to present her film that tells the story of the Women in White members of the Liberian Women’s Peace Movement : Pray the Devil back to Hell. This powerful film helped the Nobel Peace Prize committee award the 2011 prize to two Liberian women : Leymah Gbowee and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf celebrated for their efforts to bring peace to Liberia after a prolonged war.
Mme Abigail Disney avait présenté son film sur les efforts des femmes pour la paix au Libéria, ce qui avait valu le Prix Nobel de la Paix pour Leymah Gbowee and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, deux femmes libériennes qui avaient imposé la paix aux hommes armés. La participation de professeurs africains à Richmond avait permis à la VCU de développer des partenariats et d’envoyer des étudiants – ainsi que des chercheurs – au Mali et en Côte d’Ivoire. Deux filles de Richmond avaient passé une année dans un lycée de Bamako, grâce aux clubs Rotary ; et des échanges bilingues par internet ont démarré entre étudiants africains et américains.
The 2013 conference on Women, War & Peace in West Africa included both teacher workshops and films in French on Timbuktu and other foreign language films. As a result of visits to Mali by VCU faculty and students facilitated by VFoM, university partnerships were established between higher education institutions in Mali, Côte d’Ivoire and Virginia. Two VCU students in French taught English in Côte d’Ivoire; two Richmond students attended Lycée in Bamako with the support of Rotarians; several VCU French classes began online partnerships with Côte d’Ivoire and Mali. Every year VCU French faculty and VFoM co-host French-language cultural events on the VCU campus and insist on La Francophonie, for many more people speak French outside France than simply in the Hexagone. Il est bien pour les Américains de découvrir La Francophonie et que la majorité des Francophones vivent en dehors de la France.
Nous avons appuyé l’éducation à Ségou et eu Mali, l’éducation des filles en particulier.
VFoM has supported education in Ségou and in Mali, especially girls’ education. Now that Mali is led by a military junta, travel is more difficult in both directions and the idea of celebrating Mali’s past history is more stimulating than its current politics.
Avec la junte militaire au pouvoir, l’histoire du Mali est plus réjouissante à fêter que la situation actuelle.
Many times we have organized magnificent exhibitions of Malian culture and the history of the Mali Empire, founded in the year 1235 by Sunjata Keita, the original Lion King. The Emperor Mansa Musa and his Haj pilgrimage to Mecca in 1325 also featured, together with tales of secret gold mines in Mali’s forests, and fearsome salt mines in the parched heat of the Sahara Desert. Gold and Salt were traded, and sometimes in the 1300s, salt was literally ‘worth its weight in gold’ …. Difficult for us to imagine!
Nous avons organisé de nombreuses expositions magnifiques sur la culture et les arts du Mali, afin de présenter aux élèves en Virginie l’histoire de Sunjata Keita le ROI LION et de son successeur Mansa Musa en particulieravec son pèlerinage et la richesse du commerce entre le sel gemme du Sahara et l’or des mines dans la forét au sud.
Here is a picture of the current president of VFoM, Madam Lydie Sakponou at one of our VFoM exhibits in the Richmond Public Library, together with her husband Francis and her son Charles-Edward Sakponou. Behind Lydie you can see a Chiwara (two, in fact).
Ici Madame Sakponou, Lydie Alapini, la présidente actuelle des Amis du Mali en Virginie, avec son mari et son fils, devant une des expositions à Richmond.
We have organized exhibits in Richmond, McLean, Harrisonburg, Newport News, and in Virginian schools. On a organisé de nombreuses expositions sur le Mali depuis 2001.
In 2018, Ana Edwards (our president at that time) received an award from Mali’s Ambassador El-Mokhtar Keita, whose son then produced some contemporary American rap to liven up our Richmond party for Mali’s national day.
Ana Edwards, présidente à l’époque des Amis du Mali en Virginie, reçoit une trophée de l’ambassadeur El-Mokhtar Keita, une reconnaissance pour Ana et pour les Amis du Mali.
Many Richmonders have visited Mali, and received their Malian names. This is Macky Tall, shaking hands with Mali’s Chargé d’Affaires Ambassador Mohamed Al- Moustapha Cissé in 2019.
Beaucoup de visiteurs des USA ont reçu un nom malien. Voici Macky Tall avec l’ambassadeur a.i. Mohamed Al-Moustapha Cissé à la Fête Nationale du Mali 2019 à Richmond.
CULTURE :
VFoM AWARD for Contribution to French Programs
FLAVA is the Foreign Language Association of Virginia, and – thanks to our friends in the French program at Virginia Commonwealth University with whom we have been working for ten years - VFoM was proposed for a French Teaching award:
2020 Friend of FLAVA.
We have supported education in Virginia as much as in Mali. Our president Lydie Sakponou made a gracious acceptance speech in two languages, which you can hear here:
Le 10 octobre 2020 l’Association des Langues Vivantes de Virginie (FLAVA) a décerné aux Amis du Mali en Virginie (VFoM) une plaque pour nous remercier de nos efforts dans la promotion de la langue française et des études de la Francophonie en Afrique de l’Ouest dans les universités et les écoles de la Virginie.
Dans ses remerciements Madame Sakponou avait observé : ‘En Afrique on dit qu’une main ne se lave seule pour devenir propre : elle a besoin de l’autre main.’ Notre travail dans les écoles, les universités, et d’autres établissements à buts pédagogiques (dont musées, bibliothèques, et événements spéciaux de la Commission des Jumelages et divers partenaires) est un travail de collaboration où notre rôle est souvent central.
Our educational achievements are a collaborative effort. In her video, Lydie quoted an African proverb ‘Your hand cannot wash itself clean, without the help of the other hand.’
Our first publication was this bilingual ‘flip book’ for schools in Mali and in USA : flip it over, and the book is in French. Built around 12 exercises for teachers, Djita tells the story of a Malian girl born in USA to UN parents : she is both American and Malian and her story allows the book to explore our 400 years of shared history, including slavery.
Notre premier livre fut bilingue, permettant aux enseignants maliens et américains d’exploiter la même histoire d’une fille malienne née en Virginie à des parents onusiens. ‘Flipper’ le livre et vous trouvez la version en français, permettant aux Maliens de partager nos 400 années d’histoire.
VA partners and the FLAVA nomination focused on VFoM’s work in support of French and foreign language education, complemented by history and social studies teaching at the K-12 level plus World and African American studies for middle and high schools and colleges. VFoM has co-hosted multiple educational events in French and social studies throughout Virginia: Richmond, Chesterfield, Buckingham, Henrico, Hanover and Loudon county schools; while James Madison, Virginia Union, VCU, VUU, UR, UVA, EMU, William & Mary, Virginia Tech, Virginia State, Hampton, American, Howard, Georgetown, North Virginia Community College, Maggie Walker Governor’s School and many museums are among the higher education institutions with which VFoM has partnered. Since 2005, 25,000 people have attended VFoM exhibits and events about Mali.
Nous avons eu beaucoup de partenariats en Virginie et même au Canada où notre amie Erica Pomerance produit des films sur le Mali et sur la créativité de son époux malien styliste. Erica a réalisé une trentaine de films sur le Mali dans les deux langues. Elle nous avait présenté un de ses films Migrants des dunes à l’AG de 2019 – quand on pouvait encore nous réunir sans nous distancier.
In 2019 Canadian film director Erica Pomerance visited VCU. Erica presented a French film on Mali with subtitles. She has made more than 30 French-language films for teaching about Mali. Watch Erica’s film: Migrants of the Dunes
Here is a photo of Erica and her friend Sabine Koné (wearing a hat), two precious Friends of Mali at the home of a famous bogolan (mud cloth) artist Sékou Fofana and his wife at their home in Siby. VFoM have also been privileged to work with and support the work of Indigo Creator and Designer Mamoudou Nango, who is Erica’s husband. Several groups of Richmonders have visited Nango’s indigo cooperative CAPID (and taken tea or cold drinks) in Dourou village, on the Bandiagara Plateau. La photo de nos amies canadiennes et maliennes Erica Nango et Sabine Koné chez l’artiste Sékou Fofana. VFoM est fière d’appuyer les artistes et artisans du Mali.
Here is an exhibit of Nango’s work at the Ségou Festival in 2021 that was also supported by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in Bamako. Nango is in blue, wearing a mask.
L’exposition à Ségou et à Bamako des modèles indigo du créateur Nango (ici masqué en bleu) avait bénéficiée d’un appui de l’ambassade des USA au Mali ainsi que des VFoM. Nango et Erica travaillent aussi avec la Faculté des Arts de la VCU à Richmond, connue pour le travail des ses étudiants dans les textiles et le design.
Visite au centre de textiles Soroblé par une délégation de Richmond : de gauche à droite on voit Ana Edwards-Tall (en chapeau), Kalifa Touré, Michelle Oumou Koné et Robin Poulton dit Macky Tall.
Richmond visits Segu textiles.
Photo de notre ami photographe professionnel AfricaSam.
And there’s music! The Richmond-Ségou Jumelage began with two music festivals and exchanges facilitated by Allan Levenberg, a banjo-player who is VFoM's treasurer and former Richmond Sister City Commissioner, and Mamou Daffé, Founder of the Ségou Festival on the Niger River. Mali is the birthplace of the music that inspired jazz, rhythm and blues, soul and reggae, pop and rap and hip-hop. Here is Virginia’s Seth Swingle playing the ngoni on stage at the Ségou Music Festival. Several Malian musicians have also played at the Richmond Folk Festival, including Seth’s teachers Cheick Hamals Diabaté and Sékou Kouyaté
La musique de la Virginie trouve ses racines au Mali. Allan et Daffé encouragent les échanges entre Ségou et Richmond. Le jeune Seth Swingle (Waraden Diabaté) joue ici au Festival de Ségou. Il avait appris à jouer du ngoni avec les griots Cheick Hamala Diabaté et Sékou Kouyaté du groupe ségovien Ngoniba, qui ont tous joué au Folk Festival de Richmond.
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Allan Levenberg and Patrica Cummins, RSCC Commissioners
SISTER CITIES: JUMELAGE
Monsieur Madani Sissoko, représentant à Ségou des Amis du Mali, était à Richmond en Virginie pour fêter en septembre 2020, les 15 ans du Jumelage entre nos deux villes.
Our Richmond-Ségou Sister Cities15th anniversary birthday cake. Mutual visits are now more difficult.
COVID complicated travel between Mali and Virginia. Political events in Mali have made travel more difficult still. Here are two photos of the ferry Tombouctou: moored in the river port of Ségou, one stop on its journey between Gao and Koulikoro during the September-January period when rains fill the river. On 7th September 2023 armed jihadists attacked and burned the Tombouctou, We present our condolences to all Malians and especially to our friend Dr Kalifa Touré, the VFoM representative in Bamako whose family lost around 20 members in this heinous and brutal attack.
Le bateau Tombouctou a brulé le 07 septembre 2023 après une attaque par des jihadistes. Nous présentons nos condoléances aux Maliens, en particulier à notre collègue le Dr Kalifa Touré, représentant des Amis du Mali à Bamako, qui a perdu une vingtaine de membres de sa famille lors de cette attaque brutale. Ce qui explique la réduction des visites entre Richmond et Ségou.
There is not much left of the Tombouctou – une épave perdue.
But we have project success: des succès
We have delivered medical equipment and supplies worth more than $1 million, in partnership with Rotary, Project CURE, Orange Foundation and the Louisville KY organization Supplies Overseas (here welcoming Madani Sissoko arriving from Richmond, VA.).
Plus que $1 million d’équipements médicaux sont arrivés au Mali grâce à VFoM et ses partenaires.
Here is a picture of a joint Ségou-VFoM-VCU medical research project looking at AIDS-infected women in Ségou, funded by the Bill and Linda Gates Foundation.
Voici une équipe Ségou-VFoM-VCU qui prépare un projet de recherche médicale financée par la Fondation Gates, pour étudier des femmes à Ségou ayant une infection SIDA.
A Gates-funded project for health and hygiene, sponsored by Sister Cities International, allowed us to build a new maternity clinic in Ségou, a laboratory for analyses, and several public latrines to improve hygiene for students and for merchants.
Nous avions pu construire une maternité, un laboratoire d’analyses et des latrines pour améliorer la situation hygiénique de notre ville jumeleée de Ségou, avec l’appui de la Fondation Gates et Sister Cities International.
EDUCATION:
Ségou civil society leaders and English teachers leaving the Town Hall after a meeting about girls’ education and the protection of girls in school.
Image des enseignants d’anglais et d’autres représentants d’ONG à Ségou, sortant de la Mairie après une discussion sur la protection des filles dans le cadre de l’école à Ségou.
The annual Sister Cities International art competition YAAS has increasing Ségou participation every year. In 2023 Ségou students obtained one international prize as well as seven prizes in the local YAAS competition. Virginia Friends of Mali have developed a partnership with the Centre Culturel Koré, which animates the YAAS program, distributes art supplies and provides meals for young artists with support from the Richmond Sister City Commission.
YAAS est un concours artistique international chaque année, auquel les étudiants ségoviens participent chaque année – et gagnent des prix.
We have had a number of partnership projects with the University of Ségou – here is the UniSeg lecture hall, where the Rector Dr Kouyaté presented a 2019 Richmond Lecture about his visit to VCU and to Richmond, VA, with VFoM participation.
La salle de conférence de l’UniSeg, où le professeur Souleymane Kouyaté en 2019, avait présenté son expérience de la VCU et sa visite à Richmond en Virginie, en présence d’une délégation des Amis du Mali.
Meanwhile in Virginia, education about Mali and Africa concerns young and old: for example, Africa is not a ‘country’ but a continent with 54 independent states. The USA fits five times inside the African continent. Here VFoM educators Dana Wiggins and Ana Edwards are introducing Malian art and culture to small people in workshop at the Virginian Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond.
VCU is the most important of the many education institutions with which VFoM works. This photo shows Madani Sissoko and Macky Tall with professor Shawn Utsey and other members of the Department of African American Studies. Other VCU partners include the School of Medicine and the Institute of Women’s Health; the School of World Studies and the department of French; the School of Arts and the Dept of Fashion Design and Merchandising; the Business School and individuals working in geography, anthropology, history, engineering, etc.
FRIENDSHIPS = AMITIES
and in Virginia……
Fête d’amitié à Richmond chez Allan Levenberg (à droite), trésorier des Amis du Mali (VFoM) avec (de droite vers la gauche) Lydie Sakponou, présidente des VFoM, Paula Phipps, épouse d’Allan, Madani Sissoko, représentant des VFoM à Ségou, Elisabeth Drumm, éditrice du Richmond Chiwara, Yah Traoré avec son épouse qui nous ont souvent hébergés au Mali, et Fati Madame Sissoko.
Joyful hospitality in the Levenberg kitchen, 2022 in Richmond
October 2019 Jumelage party and film projection at Virginia Commonwealth University. We see in the front row Ana Edwards, VFoM vice-president, Professor Pat Cummins, Richmond Sister City Commissioner, Sombo Muzata Chunda of the VCU Business School; 2nd row (from the left) three VFoM founder members: Robin Poulton, Su Boer, Dana Wiggins holding her delightful son Theo. Next are Kit Cameron Robinson and Andee Arches, who showed their short film on Ségou, and Madani Sissoko (in white) with VFoM president Lydie Sakponou (in black). Far right stands the editor of the Richmond Chiwara, Elisabeth Drumm. Behind Sissoko we see VFoM treasurer Allan Levenberg standing beside Sombo’s tall husband Emmanuel Chama Chunda, who comes from Zambia. Others are VCU students who members of the audience watching the film.
The current ambassador H.E. Sékou Berthé (seen here in blue, with a class of French language students) came to Richmond for Mali’s National Day on 22 September 2023 and visited Virginia Commonwealth University where he listened to presentations in French by Dr Pat Cummins’ students at the School of World Studies.
Partagez cette lettre avec vos amis et avec des enseignants surtout.
Please share this newsletter with your own friends and contacts, ESPECIALLY with TEACHERS, with African-American students, and with African readers and students of English living in Africa
This is the link to past issues of our monthly Richmond Chiwara newsletter from VFoM
Pour retrouver nos éditions précédentes :
https://us20.campaign-archive.com/home/?u=3fc13b3ee64508366fa23697c&id=e398f1452d
Check out our website & blog, join us on Facebook, or email us:
https://virginiafriendsofmali.blogspot.com/