Democracy and Development in Mali

Foreword

Foreword The invitation by the editors to write the foreword for this volume, which highlights the long commitment by Michigan State University to research in Mali, provided me with the occasion to reflect upon my own twenty-year research career on arts and culture in Mali. My professional associations with African Studies were first nurtured at Michigan State University. When I was a master's degree student in African art history at MSU, the faculty and graduate students at the African Studies Center provided a supportive and intellectually exciting environment within which to pursue my particular interests in West African arts. Later, for my doctoral research at Indiana University, I narrowed my focus to Malian arts and culture and concentrated on the Segou region youth masquerade. My initial two-year study of masquerades focused on the ways troupes explore their community'S place in local, regional, and national histories. Using masques, song, and dance, performers create characters that speak to people's multiple social identities as men and women who are members of local communities , ethnic groups, and citizens of the nation state. The masquerade festivals began in pre-colonial times and are still one of the most important performance events in many Segou communities. Many older masquerades celebrate the hunter/warrior heroes of past generations; these characters remain favorites in the theaters and join with newer, more topical masquerades. The topical masquerades speak to changes in the economy, the political landscape, and family and domestic life. With the establishment of a free press in the early 1990s and the increase in radio and television transmission throughout the country, the flow of information between urban and rural areas is now more comprehensive and more immediate. People in rural communities are talking about and debating the very same issues that urbanites do. Consequently, xi xii MARY JO ARNOLDI authors, popular songwriters and singers, and rural masqueraders are all responding to many of the same political, economic, and social issues. Recent masquerades, for example, focused on issues of poverty and economic development , marriage and divorce, and governance. In the guise of play, the masquerades illustrate allegorically the complex and thorny issues facing these communities today. The awarding in May 1998 of an honorary doctorate by Michigan State University to Dr. Alpha Oumar Konare, archeologist and museologist and President of Mali, reminded me that over the past two decades I have received support and encouragement for my research from many Malian colleagues among whom are Drs. Alpha Oumar Konare and Adame Ba Konare. In 1977, I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Alpha Konare in Bloomington, Indiana, when he was on an official visit to the United States as Mali's minister of Youth, Sport, Arts, and Culture. It was Thanksgiving Day and the university campus was all but deserted. Dr. Konare's official program had finished and he was due to leave the campus the next day. My apartment-mates and I always hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for African student friends in Bloomington and we invited Dr. Konare to attend. He graciously accepted. More than thirty people crammed into our small flat, including guests from Mali, Senegal, Gambia, Ethiopia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Ghana, and Nigeria. One of my most vivid memories of that occasion was how Alpha enthusiastically engaged with everyone in the room. Lively conversations in French and English covered everything from economic development and future aspirations for Africa, to philosophy, politics, and culture. That afternoon I had an opportunity to discuss with Alpha my own dissertation research project on masquerade arts in Mali. His openness and interest, and his encouragement and thoughtful responses to my questions about Malian heritage, history, and culture were inspiring. In 1978, I arrived in Mali for two years of research. While I was not often in Bamako, I did return periodically to the city to renew my research visa and occasionally ran into Alpha at the Ministry of Culture. He always asked after my project, encouraged my efforts, and made welcome and helpful suggestions on the research. Since that first study, whenever I have returned to Mali to continue arts research, stopping to talk to Alpha is always a priority. One afternoon, I popped into the Jamana office (Jamana is the cultural organization founded by Dr. Konare) to say hello. Because he was just off to check on the progress of a favorite project-the construction of neighborhood health clinics -he took me along and we talked about my ideas for future research on Mali's...