{"id":29519,"date":"2018-01-09T05:12:56","date_gmt":"2018-01-09T04:12:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=29519"},"modified":"2018-01-01T22:41:01","modified_gmt":"2018-01-01T21:41:01","slug":"french-culture-mali-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/french-culture-mali-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"French Culture – Mali Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"

France, like a number of European countries, once controlled large areas of land outside of continental Europe. At the height of its colonial power, France had colonies from Southeast Asia and the South Pacific, to the Caribbean and the new world, and into large parts of Africa. Many of those former colonies make up what is known today as la francophonie<\/b>* and continue to contribute to French culture around the world.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A French colony until its independence in 1960, Mali, located in north west Africa, is one of the continent’s largest countries.\u00a0 This week we look at three related culture highlights.<\/p>\n

Malick Sidibe<\/strong>
\nA new exhibit at the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain <\/b><\/a>(Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art \u2026 <\/i>yes, that Cartier!) features des photographies<\/b>** (photographs)<\/i> taken by this Malian artist \/ photographer that capture the French- (and American-) influenced youth culture of the recently liberated capital Bamako***. You can enjoy some of them yourself and read more about Sidibe and his work in this excellent article<\/a> from NPR.<\/p>\n

Amadou & Mariam<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"Amadou Bagayoko and his wife Mariam Doumbia are a musical duo from Mali whose music and lyrics celebrate the unique culture and traditions of their home country. Both blind, they have still enjoyed a successful global career that includes performances with some of the world’s top bands. You can listen to a great interview with them here<\/a> and enjoy some of their songs on their official Youtube channel here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bal de Bamako
\n<\/strong>As Amadou & Mariam tell us, “<\/b>le dimanche \u00e0 Bamako, c’est le jour du mariage\u2026<\/b><\/a>” <\/b>(Sundays in Bamako are wedding days). <\/i>More generally, Sundays are for celebrating. And this song from French singer Matthieu Chedid**** that I discovered during my trip to France<\/a> last summer seems like a perfect ‘party song’ to celebrate the new year and the on-going contributions of France’s former colonies to the world heritage that is la francophonie.<\/b><\/p>\n