Jenna and Gus in Bamako: December 2008

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Week #19 Eid al adha (Happy Tabaski)

In addition to killing our own Ram, on Monday we celebrated Tabaski with several different families around Bamako. Here Stacy enjoys some food with the Bella Diawara's family in Banankabougou.

Randy and Jenna with Bella Diawara and his cousins Sine and Mohamadou Kone.

Here we are visiting Kat Johnson's host family in Yirimadjo. A griot with her entourage of drummers stopped by to sing praises to the family. These are 24MB video clips, so it might take a couple of minutes for them to upload.

Jenna and Gus pose in our new truck.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Week #18 A visit to the new Fulfulde radio station.
Jenna and Gus sit with the director of programs, Mr. Rililey Toumboula, in the studio of Bamako's premier Fulfulde radio station FM106.5. Known to the Fulani of Bamako as "Station FM Tabital Pulaaku." this non-profit station is completely funded by contributions from the Fulani population in greater Bamako.... sort of an NPR for the Peul. In addition to Gus' cute spider man smile, notice the photo of Barak Obama on the wall behind Jenna, and next to it a poster of the Kabbah in Mecca.

Jenna and Gus prepare to count to 10 in Fulfulde on the air.

Several months ago some of the transistors in the stations main amplifier burned out, leaving FM Tabital with only 20W of output from their exciter. We have been working with the station to help them with the logistics of purchasing and shipping the replacement components so that the station can be back at full power again. Last week I was invited to the station to talk on the air during a call-in program (mostly about Barak Obama!), and we are talking with the station about having a "cow raffle" to raise money to fix the amplifier.... applying the tactics VPR uses during their bi-monthly fund raisers.... just image if VPR decided to raffle off a cow instead of an iPod and plane tickets donated by Milne Travel !

Independant radio stations like FM Tabital are quite new in many parts of Africa, and I believe they represent an essential step toward true democracy. Going back even ten years, the only radio stations that existed in countries like Mali or Niger were government run. In fact, the first thing the leaders of a coup d'etat would do when they siezed control was take over the radio station, ensuring they controled the propoganda. Mali now has dozens of small independant stations, and although they operate on a shoestring, they provide a voice for almost every group in Mali.