#bamako

[thrdnarrative]

Diabi Diarabi in Bamako, Mali by Nybé Ponzio (@visualsbyponzio)

[afrotumble]

[sonicandvisualsurprises]

Jurukan - Rail Band

1973 A hypnotic groove from Bamako’s finest.

“Jurukan” captures everything I love about the Rail Band: rich Mandé melodies, fluid rhythms, and that unmistakable Bamako swing.

A truly captivating piece.

[feminineforms]

"Back Views [Vues de Dos]" (2002) by Malick Sidibé

With her back to the camera, the sitter in Sidibé’s Back Views is subverting the norms of portraiture in which a face is visibly at the center. Known as one of the earliest African studio photographers, Sidibé’s portraits of people in Mali capture the joy, tensions, and style of post-independence Bamako. That she is reclining recalls the fetishistic trope of the “reclining female nude” throughout Western art, but that she is turned away from the camera lends a sense of mystery and opacity—perhaps a Black feminist resistance to being captured by the camera’s gaze.

[yearningforunity]

Bamako, Mali

[chantssecrets]

Bamako. Mali. 1994. At sunrise, a fisherman in his boat on the river Niger. 📸 by Abbas © Fonds Abbas

[generallemarc]

Please, PLEASE pray for Mali

After US, Italy asks citizens to leave Mali amid fuel blockade, fears of Al Qaeda takeover

In a video posted online, JNIM leader Abou Houzeifa Al Bambari said they would not allow ‘even a single drop of fuel in’.

JNIM, a jihadist group swearing loyalty to Al-Qaeda, has been blockading Mali's capital for weeks to prevent fuel from coming in, and so far it's been working. The US Embassy has, in addition to the "get out now" order, said that it can no longer offer consular services to Americans in any part of the country except the capital. I would expect a full evacuation within a week or two, maybe sooner. Mali has no real way of stopping this-the previous times they fought off insurgencies were with Western air support that they demanded leave after their military took power, and the "help" they've been getting from Russian mercenaries has been so filled with war crimes that some local groups were choosing to back JNIM because the Malian military had actually been treating them worse, something that shouldn't have even been possible.

If the capital falls, a nation of 22 million people will be plunged into anarchy, where an Al-Qaeda-offshoot jihadist group will be the biggest power player, to say nothing of the 4.2 million people living in Bamako who will be at their mercy. Please, if you're reading this, no matter how you worship, pray for Mali.

[itswadestore]

Bamako, 1963 by William Klein