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Project Mali

Maps and photographs

Pic. 1 Mali: Bandiagara Region circled in red. Starting from Mopti flatland, we climb gradually up towards the rocky highland which, after about 80 km, it drops down to the sandy flatlands towards Burkina with a vertical rocky falesia that can reach peaks as high as 400-500 metres. The amazing view, as well as the richness and complexity of dogon craft and folk, attract tourists from all over the world. Off the beaten track however, the villages up in the highlands (about 400 metres), still isolated due to the difficulty to reach them, are now facing new problems (together with the already century old fight for survival) brought by the development and modernization.

Pic. 2: A more detailed map of the area. The red circles indicate the areas in which ORISS operates already or is planning to within the near future.

(the diagonal corresponds to about 100 Km)

Pic. 3: Songho village.

The houses have a rectangular base whereas the ones with a cupola or covered by a straw “lid” are barns. Being farmers, Dogons take special care in the conservation of harvested cereals (millet predominantly) and of all the seeds which will be used for the following year. In some areas of the highland, where the rock has surfaced, they have fenced little sections (about one metre by one) with pebbles, filling them up with earth which they carried in baskets from far away sometimes. Since little dames have been introduced into the cultivation system, to prevent the rain water from being washed away, together with the millet, now legumes as well are being cultivated (in counter-season): in particular onions which are exported all over the world for their unmistakable flavour. These activities allowed to create income contributing to lessen the migration of the youngsters towards the cities, once the millet harvesting is over.

Some of the works

The schools

Pic. 4: Bodio. Before the school complex had been built, classes were held under a straw roofed shelter not protected from wind, dust or rain. The Government provided a teacher but the teaching premises and equipment had to be resourced by the communities. ORISS intervened thanks to their requests (ORISS built, equipped and created the Management Committee of the Bodio School). In a village of the same area, Songho, ORISS engaged to complete the already existing school building. Private donations as well as the Tavola Valdese made this possible.

Pic. 5 – The new wing of the school in Songho built in 2005. In the previous years the already existing building ad been repaired and the equipping and furnishing had been completed.

Pic. 6 – The school complex in Bodio, fully realised by one of ORISS projects. It comprises three calssrooms, two offices, a canteen, a room for storage and a depo for the water tank.

Pic. 7 - One of the classrooms of Bodio School. More than a hundred students are attending the first three grades with three teachers.

Pic. 8 - Dr. Lelia Pisani from ORISS, is showing some school material donated from a school in Gavorrano (Grosseto, Italy) part of an exchange programme.

Pic. 9 and 10 – Didactic material donated to the school, part of the ORISS Project.

Fig. 11 – At work.

Pic.: 12 Time for lunch. After a heavy draught in 2004, ORISS managed to organise a school canteen which helped children to keep a good nutritional balance and hence avoiding drop outs from classes. Together with the World Food Programme, as well as using Italian funds, ORISS provided the food in loco. The Women Associations of the villages who use the school, prepare the meals in a rota system.

Pic. 13 and 14 - The school courtyard is also a gathering point where manifestations, cultural events and exchanges take place. That is how the pupils can connect their education with health and development. A group of youths of Bodio aims to reconnect to the dance, songs and music tradition, which has been abandoned. Encouraged and supported by ORISS, they danced for the first time in the courtyard, involving the pupils and the elderly of the village.

Pic. 15 and 16 - Masks dance in the school. In this way, pupils and other youngsters of the village can see the importance of the expression of their culture, which today has been replaced by foreign ones.

Ama's mill

Pic. 17. Some women from the Ama Women Association. They asked ORISS for a mill. A mill for cereals with a diesel engine allows women to save precious time to prepare the flour for millet polenta which constitutes the Dogons daily staple food. However, the women of the village are in charge of the maintenance and the organization of the mill, as well as of the recurring costs, developing in this way skills that they will be able to use in other aspects of their lives. Private donations as well as the Tavola Valdese made this possible.

Pic. 18 – The mill recover has been built by the young men of Ama: this was their voluntary contribution to the project.

Pic. 19 - The mill in function. Since its installment, the mill works everyday for several hours a day. So far, the maintenance and the management have been completely satisfactory.

Pic. 20 and 21. The celebration for the inauguration of the mill.

Water: the Bougou well

Pic. 22. Bougou is a village of about 500 people. It used to have a well dug by the bed of a torrent, dry during the dry season. Following a flood, the upper part of the well slid down. The habitants of Bougou village used the stagnant water during the dry season, or they (the women) had to walk two kilometers to get water from a well of a nearby village. After consulting with the competent technical and administrative authorities, it has been decided to dig a well in proximity of the village. Private donations as well as the Tavola Valdese made this possible.

Pic. 23 – The diameter of the well of Bougou (almost two meters). The escavation, carried out mostly in the rock, required a lot of hard work and a high amount of explosive. Water was found eight metres deep. At ten meters the water was already 1 meter high. The decision was to go as far as seventeen meters and wait for the dry season to check whether that depth was enough for it.

Pic. 24 – Another scene from the works carried out.

The archive of the Cercle of Bandiagara

Pic. 25 – The Archive of Bandiagara Prefecture holds all the administrative documents of the Cercle from 1903 up til now. These administrative papers, both from trials and from chronicles, represent all that is left from the colonial times, from the Independence passage and from recent rimes. This is the condistion of the Archive as we found it in 2003. From the Prefect of Bandiagara request, came the co-operation between ORISS and the University “La Sapienza” in Rome, to reorganise, secure and historically evaluate these documents.

Pic. 26 – One of the jobs phase. We find Prof. Luigi Maria Lombardi Satriani and Prof. Laura Faranda from the University of Rome, Dr. Lelia Pisani from ORISS and Ogobara Tembély, archivist trainee.