Bamako during the Harmattan // Kenya in flames

I reached Bamako late last night.  I am here to speak at a conference being convened by Mali's Ministry of Culture, the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI), ICOMOS, and UNESCO on Earthen Architecture.  Aluka and the University of Cape Town have done a great deal of work in documenting two important masjids in Mali, so I'm here to share some of the results of that documentation and to try and increase awareness of Aluka in general amongst this influential group of conservators, architects, site managers, and researchers.  The Harmattan winds are blowing  and though Bamako is pleasantly mild and dry (think Palm Springs in November), you can see a fine dust blanketing the horizon and a sandy tint to the crisp blue sky. 

The news from Kenya continues to worry me.  Political assassinations, riots in the poorest areas, peripheral regions in complete disarray and abandon; I guess after surviving the Rwandan wars in the mid-90's, the disintegrating situation in Kenya brings back memories that I would prefer to forget.  The lessons from Rwanda are that what happened was totally preventable, the innocent civilians suffer the most and bear the brunt of all violence, and the world was too slow to react.  Appropriate global intervention could have halted or stopped the violence from spreading to other regions of the country.  It's high time we learn from the recent past and prevent the situation there from dissolving into a full fledged civil war.  Finally, while people have been quick to describe the ethnic tensions that are fueling this conflict, I think a much more rational explanation would be more analysis on how difficult it has been for democratic institutions and systems of governance to emerge in parts of Africa.

Comments

[Amelia Wong]

Hello,
I am writing because this blog post was featured in the Getty Center’s blog, A Different Lens. I'm hoping you might be willing to participate in an online survey about that experience. I am collecting information about people’s opinions of the blog as part of my dissertation research as a doctoral candidate in the Department of American Studies at the University of Maryland.

The survey will take approximately 15-30 minutes to complete, depending on the length of your answers. Or, if you would like to participate in this research but prefer to be interviewed over the phone, please write me at awong22@umd.edu.

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[Vicki Porter]

Hi,

We have a new blog at the Getty, and we featured your blog on it. Thought you might like to see it.

Hoping you had a fruitful conference in Mali!