More Mali Music in DC Next Week

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Boss Bistro, Bossa, Greek Spot, Imarhan Timbuktu, Mali, Malian music, Tuareg

Malian music is quite a thing in the DMV – see my blog on this show at Tropicalia or my review of this film on a music festival in Mali produced by DC filmmakers for examples.

Today on my lunch break, I went in to the Greek Spot on U Street and saw this poster for a show next week in Adams Morgan and I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised.

I apologize to readers for the reduction in posts lately.  However, there’s quite a bit going on this weekend that I plan to cover, so stay tuned.

The ‘Residual, Awkward Thing Called Global International Terrorism’: Examining Soft Power Use in Muslim Africa at GWU

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al-Shabab, Albany Associates, Boko Haram, George Washington University, Mali, Robert Fry, Simon Haselock, Somalia, Todd Haskell, William Youmans

This morning I attended a discussion on ‘Soft Power in Countering Extremism from the Horn of Africa to the Western Sahel.’  The talk (I left before Q&A) was sponsored by George Washington University’s Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication.  It featured two elderly representatives from Albany Associates, a London-based firm that is ‘about trying to communicate in different environments’ and where it ‘sort of helps’ to be an ex-Royal Marine (in the words of its Chair, Sir Robert Fry).  Oddly, as you see above, Albany was also a co-sponsor of the event.

In Observance of Black History Month: A Comment on De Facto Segregation

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de facto segregation, George Washington University, Howard University Africa, Jim Crow in DC, Mali, South Africa

I previously blogged about the segregation of Africana entertainment events in DC, with whites tending to go to more mainstream venues in northern Virginia and downtown DC to hear ‘traditional’ African music, while those of African origins go to venues in NE and Maryland to hear a different set of tunes.  With the increasing lip service to globalization and emphasis that many non-Africans in DC place on exploring African cultural products, I find this lingering division to be disturbing.

‘I Knew the Answer for World Peace was in Mali’: The Founder of the Malian Manuscript Foundation at GWU

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333, AIG, Amadou Toumani Touré, Bamako, Capitol Archaeological Institute, Douglas Park, GWU, Hank Greenberg, Mali, Mali tourism, Michael Covitt, Sabatier Films, Timbuktu, Tuaregs, Ugly American

(L) Covitt, (R) Park

The last event I covered for Africa in DC, on Afrofuturism, was bizarrely intriguing.  The event I discuss here, Mali: The Peaceful Resolution of Conflict, was just short of a train wreck.  The discussion was hosted by the Capitol Archaeological Institute and I commend them for keeping a focus on Mali now that the conflict has receded.  However, the event’s speaker, the founder of the Malian Manuscript Foundation, Michael Covitt, exhibited the worst traits of an Ugly American during his discussion moderated by recent Yale PhD and former GWU student Douglas Park.

Brookings on Conflicts in Africa: Nigeria, Somalia, and Central African Republic

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Amadou Sy, Boko Haram, Central Africa Republic, ethnic cleansing Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, John Campbell, Mali, MEND, Nigeria, Somalia, Vanda Felbab-Brown

From L: the Moderator, Sy, Campbell, Felbab-Brown

Yesterday I popped in for about half of a session at the Brookings Institution on ‘The State of Conflict and Prospects for Peace in Africa.’  Panelists included Vanda Felbab-Brown and Amadou Sy of the Brookings Institution and Amb. John Campbell of the Council on Foreign Relations.  The panelists focused on sources of instability in Somalia, the Central African Republic, and Nigeria.  The moderator was also slated to speak briefly on the Democratic Republic of the Congo but I left in advance of his remarks.  Mali was not on the agenda, showing how much things can change in a year.

Wole Soyinka at Howard University: In Praise of Rwanda’s Kagame and in Defiance of Gambia’s Jammeh, Or Tearing a New one for African Leaders

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Abdoulaye Wade, Boko Haram, Congo, Gambia, Howard University, Laurent Gbagbo, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, Wole Soyinka, Yahya jammeh

At Howard University last evening (only my second time there for an event), Wole Soyinka ostensibly spoke on the theme of ‘Rwanda: Paradigm for a Continent.’  The scene was set by a call and response between the Howard administrator presiding over the event and the predominantly student audience, something that was a far cry from the staid environment at events at the New England liberal arts school I attended.

The Nigerian Wole Soyinka, one of the continent’s undisputed intellectual giants gave an extremely hard hitting talk, which was as much about Gambia being a blight on Africa’s image than Rwanda being its savior.  Keep reading for Soyinka’s thoughts and why his handling of a Q&A made me lose all respect for him, after a pretty good set of prepared remarks.