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~ Exploring African affairs and cultural events in the DMV

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Tag Archives: Tuareg

More Mali Music in DC Next Week

12 Wednesday Mar 2014

Posted by africaindc in entertainment, Events, Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

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

2014-03-12 12.58.24

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.

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Bruce Whitehouse at SAIS on Mali’s Elections, the Future of Captain Sanogo, and More

24 Thursday Oct 2013

Posted by africaindc in DC Corridors of Power, Events, Uncategorized

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Amadou Sanogo, Amadou Toumani Touré, Azawad, Bamako, Bruce Whitehouse, democracy in Africa, Mali, Peter Lewis, SAIS, Todd Moss, Tuareg, US military engagement in Mali

2013-10-23 12.32.58

Today, I was able to hear the Lehigh anthropologist Bruce Whitehouse speak for the second time since I started blogging.  Dr. Lewis of SAIS’ Africa Studies Program noted in his introduction that he was ‘delighted to welcome’ Dr. Whitehouse.  I second that comment, as I greatly appreciate the nuances, specific info, and multiple perspectives that Dr. Whitehouse brings forward in his speeches as well as on his blog (which is much more sophisticated than mine but rather infrequently updated these days).

Continue reading →

Sounds of the Sahel and Sudan in DC

14 Friday Jun 2013

Posted by africaindc in entertainment, Uncategorized

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9:30 Club, African Music, Bombino, Cheick Hamala Diabate, DC Africa music, Emmanuel Jal, Kennedy Center, Kenya, Mali, Millenium Stage, South Sudan, Tuareg, Tuareg rebellion, Tuareg's of Niger

On June 18, the blind Malian duo, Amadou & Mariam (the link contains a very detailed bio) will be performing at the 9:30 Club.  They will be joined by Bombino, a Tuareg guitarist from next door in Niger who is starting to make a big name for himself (I believe he performed at the Black Cat last summer, and come to think of it, I believe Amadou & Mariam may have performed at the 9:30 Club a year ago as well).  According to 9:30’s bio of Bombino, two of his bandmates were killed during Niger’s Tuareg rebellion that ended in 2009.

If you can’t afford the $40 ticket for that show, the Millenium Stage at the Kennedy Center has 2 free shows with African performers for you.  On June 20, Cheick Hamala Diabate, another Malian (although he must be based in DC, because he’s been doing a lot of shows here in recent months), will perform to support UNHCR in honor of World Refugee Day.  Two days later, the South Sudanese rapper Emmanual Jal will perform at the same venue.  I have to confess I had never heard of Jal, although the Kennedy Center blurb says he is ‘world-renowned’ and his Wikipedia page is quite lengthy (he was a child soldier, who managed, in something that sounds like it was taken from the pages of Philip Caputo’s Acts of Faith, to escape to Kenya, with the help of a British aid worker married to a South Sudanese commander, which is where he was able to launch his music career).

If you go to any of these, let me know how it was.

The Institute of Current World Affairs on Senegal and the Sahel & the Ambassador of Niger Shines

01 Saturday Jun 2013

Posted by africaindc in DC Corridors of Power, Events, Uncategorized

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African officials on Kidal, African peanut butter cookies, Bruce Whitehouse, Cosmos club, Embassy of Niger, Gao, Hannah Armstrong, Institute of Current World Affairs, Mali, Maman Sidikou, Niger, peanuts in Africa, Sahel crisis, Senegal, Tuareg

The Institute of Current World Affairs (ICWA), hosted a discussion on agriculture in Senegal and the crisis in the Sahel (read Mali) this morning at the Cosmos Club as part of its semi-annual meeting and symposium this morning.  Perhaps most notable, and most exciting for those interested in the Sahel, was the appearance of the Ambassador of Niger, Maman Sidikou, who really has me excited about Mahamadou Issoufou’s government in Niger.

I am not particularly familiar with ICWA’s work, but based on some conversations I had with its members and some brief comments by its staff, I get the impression they have not traditionally engaged African issues in much depth; it is always good to see new movement in Africa’s direction.

Before going any further, a brief observation on the demographics of the crowd may be revealing, it consisted overwhelmingly of retirees or people of that age – probably 85% of those present.

2013-06-01 09.17.11

Senegal

Jori Lewis, a much younger ICWA fellow, and a journalist by profession, spoke about her experiences living in Senegal for two years: her culture shock, love for the Senegalese national dish thieboudienne, and her work researching the country’s peanut industry.

She is now working on a history of the peanut and its African and American connections and hopes to start a peanut butter cookie producing business in Senegal (which may export cookies to the ECOWAS subregion).

From L - R: Armstrong, Gwin, Whitehouse

From L – R: Armstrong, Gwin, Whitehouse

Sahel

A panel discussion on the Sahelian crisis followed.  Hannah Armstrong, an ICWA fellow with security interests who has been floating around the Sahel/Sahara was joined by the Anthropologist Bruce Whitehouse, who was living right around the corner from her in Mali last year and the trio was rounded out by Peter Gwin of the National Geographic, who has spent considerable time in Mali’s famed outpost, TImbuktu.

Whitehouse provided a fairly comprehensive overview of recent developments in Mali over the past decade, which I suspect most readers of this blog will be familiar with.  He noted that while Mali had been beset by ‘rampant corruption’ in recent years, this was accompanied by tangible gains in the economic and human development spheres (although he described himself as an aid skeptic). He spoke of his frustration with the best intentioned efforts of ill-informed diplomats in the West who have cause much harm to Africa.  He cited the impending elections in Mali, scheduled at the end of July, as being on a timetable set by France and giving him much cause for pessimism.

Gwin provided an overview of ethnic and economic tensions in Timbuktu, one of the main cities in northern Mali that fell outside the control of the government.

Hannah Armstrong spoke of a visit to Gao, the second major city in Mali’s north to be liberated as a result of France’s recent intervention.  She criticized those in the West for the romantic notions they often ascribed to the Tuareg and she singled out France 24 and Al-Jazeera as contributing to that discourse by giving Tuareg representatives preferential access to the airwaves.

She also made some mildly apologist notes for Algeria’s authoritarian government, but she did not have the time to draw her thoughts out in too much detail.

The Awesome Ambassador

The highlight of the event was the informal engagement of the Ambassador of Niger, Maman Sidikou.  He expressed concern that the third major city in the north of Mali, Kidal, had not fallen back into the administration of the central government.  On a point that I agree with emphatically, he spoke of his tenure with the World Bank and its tendency to paint projects as always being a rosy success (the implication being that this is what happened in Mali writ large).

He also instilled a cautionary note in a brief discourse on ethnic mixing in Niger.  He mentioned that he has family roots in Mali and spoke of a significant degree of ethnic mixing in Niger, including the multi-ethnic union that will result from his own son’s impending marriage.  He warned that the security of the region was threatened much more by foreign jihadists than local Tuaregs.

If more ambassadors showed up at these types of events, I’m sure that policies would be much better.  Kudos to Ambasador Sidikou.

 

 

 

Monday at SAIS Part II: Crisis in Northern Mali

12 Tuesday Mar 2013

Posted by africaindc in DC Corridors of Power, Events, Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

AQIM, Islam in Africa, Mali, Mauritania, Michael Shurkin, MUJAO, Niger, Rida Lyammouri, SAIS, Tuareg

Yesterday evening, SAIS’ African Studies Program convened a stellar panel on “Understanding Who’s Who in Northern Mali: Terrorists, Secessionists, and Criminals”.  I must confess that unlike my DC blogging colleague Lesley Anne Warner, I do not have a specific interest in military affairs in Africa.  Consequently, I will shy away from analyzing this event as critically as I would like, as I am in danger of wading out into uncharted waters (though I lived in the Sahel for 2 years, I know little about who’s who in Northern Mali).  The panel convened Michael Shurkin from the Rand Corporation, Larry Velte of the National Defense University, and Rida Lyammouri of the Navanti Group. Continue reading →

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