Bridges from Bamako

• A la recherche de l'avenir de Bamako : Un manifeste ethnographique 3 years ago Au risque de paraître trop hâtif ou empressé, je voudrais aborder maintenant [le sujet] la question de mes prochaines recherches à Bamako. Le manuscrit de livre tiré de mes recherches passées reste bloqué pour le moment ; j’ai commencé ces … Continue reading →
• Looking for Bamako's future: An ethnographic manifesto 3 years ago It is probably premature of me, perhaps even somewhat rash, to choose this time to write about my next research project in Bamako. After all, the book manuscript stemming from my current project (on the city’s changing contours of marriage … Continue reading →
• Le taximan bamakois: A tribute 3 years ago To give you a rough idea of the importance of taxis to my existence whenever I'm in Bamako, let me offer this number: in the field notes I wrote during my last research trip, a three-week visit to wrap up a decade-long study of urban marriage and polygamy trends, the word "taxi" appears 28...
• Exploring risk and resilience in rural Mali 3 years ago The year’s most notable book of Mali-focused research is, to my mind, Camilla Toulmin’s Land, Investment, and Migration: Thirty-Five Years of Village Life in Mali. Based on the author’s fieldwork in the community of Dlonguebougou (central Segou region, north of … Continue reading →
• A message to my people: Can we halt America's tribalization? 4 years ago I wrote this opinion piece for US newspapers but couldn’t find an editor willing to run it. The intended subtitle was “When African civil wars foreshadow our present heart of darkness.” While US politics isn’t a subject I would normally … Continue reading →

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