Report on the solidarity work with peasant movements in Mali by Olaf Bernau. This text has been first published in the monthly journal ak – analyse & kritik in april 2015

Since 2012 the transnational network Afrique-Europe-Interact has been forming alliances with small-scale farmers in Mali, who have been affected by different forms of land grabs. In this report we want to take stock from different perspectives, to join the processes in Mali to the debates on transnational organizing and internationalistic solidarity work in Europe.

The scene that takes place in March 2015 seems completely anachronistic from a European perspective: A very old and blind village mayor, sits down in front of his doorless hut between two other very old men. The three of them want to welcome the 12-member delegation of the transnational network Afrique-Europe-Interact (AEI), among them three activists from Europe.

April 2015

With financial support of Afrique-Europe-Interacta further peasant's assembly has taken place in the Office du Niger, this time in Niono. At this assembly peasants from all zones of the Office du Niger have participated. In addition a delegation of cotton farmers from the south of Mali and 50 activists from the section Bamako of our network have come as well. Generally this one-day assembly has taken the decision to support the unlimited protest of the two villages Sanamadougou and Sahou which are supposed to start on the 2nd of June 2015.

In March 2015 a delegation of 13 people (amongst others 3 activists from Europe) has visited the Office du Niger – in particular in order to meet the people of Sanamadougou, Sahou and Kourouma. Pictures of this delegation can be only seen in the german version of this web site. Apart from that one can find in the text The Connection between Urban and Rural Areas un long report about this visit or more general: about the cooperation between Afrique-Europe-Interact and the peasants in the Office du Niger.

November 2014

With financial support of Afrique-Europe-Interact a big peasant's assembly has taken place in November 2014 in Sanamadougou et Sahou. On the one hand side farmers from the two villages and several neighbour villages have participated, on the other hand 40 activists from the section Bamako of our network have come as well. In the french version of this website one can find an article about this meeting.

Between November 2013 and May 2014 several actions against landgrabbing and displacements have taken place in Mali. The malian section of our network has supported two of those actions – mainly organised by the “Union” (which is active in Afrique-Europe-Interact as well). A third action in Niono/Office du Niger and Bamako was mainly organised by Afrique-Europe-Interact – more informations concerning those events are until now only available in the german and french version of this website.

By Olaf Bernau – first published in: ak – analyse & kritik – zeitung für linke Debatte und Praxis / Nr. 574 / 17.8.2012

The plans were ambitious, when in the beginning of March 2012 a 30-headed delegation of the transnational network Afrique-Europe-Interact – among them 10 activists from Europe – started their journey from the Malian capital of Bamako to Office de Niger, which is situated 270 kilometers north-east of the city . What started the idea for this trip was the fact, that the government of this Westafrican country has sold over 900,000 hectares of the crop and grazing land of this highly fertile Niger inland delta to transnationally operating banks, investment funds and corporations between the year 2003 and today. Correspondingly this region has frequently become the arena for public actions against landgrab.

The report and conclusions of the international conference which took place in Mali, Selingué from 17 to 19 of November 2011, can be downloaded here. It has beend published by via campesina:

By Brigitte Reisenberger and Sofía Monsalve Suárez

From 17-19 November 2011 women and men peasants, pastoralists, indigenous peoples and their allies from across the world gathered together in Mali to participate in the first international peasants’ conference to stop land grabbing. The meeting took place in Nyéléni Village, a centre for agro-ecology training near Sélingué and a symbolic place for the global struggle for food sovereignty: the first international forum on Food Sovereignty was held here 2007. Two-hundred-fifty participants from 30 countries around the world came together to share with each other their experiences and struggles against land grabbing and to build and strengthen their alliances.