Bäjäfanga. Power to all!
Mali: Searching for good citizenship in Africa, in five steps.
by Charlotte Wiedemann
Standing in front of this iron door flap wasn’t planned, not at all.The iron flap keeps opening and closing. The flap is part of an iron door, and the door leads to the central prison. Five detained journalists are in custody here, editors and directors of Malian newspapers. But this was not planned, not in this story that was supposed to cover democracy in Mali, one of the few democracies in Africa.
Map of Mali and Senegal:
Map of Mali and Senegal: This map gives a good overview of Mali and Senegal, and of Africa in general. Just one problem: the name of the Malian capital Bamako is not written in Latin characters. Bamako is the city directly to the West of Koulikoro.
Bamako from the Taxi (Video)
Bamako will be the starting point of the caravane to the Word Social Forum in Dakar. Many activists from Europe never have been in Bamako. Therefore a short video-documentation from of a Taxi shall give a least a first impression of the 2 till 3 billionen city. The music comes from the hip-hop-group les réfugies which has been formed during the strike in the deportation camp Blankenburg (Northern Germany) in October 2006 and which is still making concerts.
Mali: A country of emigration, immigration, transit and return
By Ousmane Diarra (AME*)
Historically and geographically, Mali is an important crossroads for civilisations and migration. Mali is at the same time a country of emigration, immigration, transit and return. It is estimated that around one-third of the Malian population, that is four million people, live outside the country, of which more than half reside in other West African countries. A large number of undocumented Malian migrants in Europe are being confronted with the current strengthening of European immigration policies.
