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THE
COURIER-JOURNAL,
Sunday, February 21,1999
"Aid
projects bring hope, challenges to Africa’s Mali "
BY
MAERVIN AUBESPIN
LONG
BEFORE Europeans arrived in West Africa, the empire of Mali spread across
the tranSahara trade routes. Timbuktu and Djenne rose from desert and
savannah, to become centers of culture and commerce.
By
the end of the 16th Century, an invasion of Berber armies from
the north, followed by Europeans active along the West African coast,
managed to break the Muslim monopoly on trade.
Timbuktu
rapidly sank into near oblivion. The empire, once a jewel of the
continent, never recovered.
Today,
Mali is one of the world’s poorest countries, and Timbuktu is a synonym
for the middle of nowhere.
You
can find desolation and desperation in Mali.
You
also can find Kebe Tantou Sambake – wife, mother entrepreneur and
community leader.
A
striking woman in her brightly colored dress, she leads a social
revolution of sorts in her community.
In
most of Mali, tradition, culture and isolation combine to produce massive
illiteracy and a life expectancy of 48 years. Per capita income is
somewhere between $400 and $500, in a country recovering from five years
of civil war.
The
vast majority of the illiterate are women who, in many areas, do the
majority of the work.
The
United Nations Development Program (UNDP) – working with non-government
organizations and outside donors, including the United States – has
undertaken what seems like a nearly impossible task, an all-out fight
against poverty in Mali. If the effort succeeds, women will benefit most.
As
is true in other developing countries, the women of Mali are most deeply
affected by poverty. And they're taking the lead in the fight.
They’ve
adopted grassrools projects at the community and village level, designed
to create better living standards and more opportunities for themselves
and their families.
Kebe
Tantou Sambake is one of them. She walks busily through a concrete block
building that houses the offices of her business, in the Magnambougou
neighborhood of Bamako, the capial city. In the walled courtyard out back,
teen-age girls dip massive, twisted bolts of cloth kito buge pots of dye…
bright crimson, teal green and indigo.
Next
door, neighborhood children play soccer on a small dump.
Sambake
operates Tantou Teinture, where girls learn the art of tie-dyeing, as well
as reading, writing and business skills, in a one-room classroom next to
the work area.
« I
started the center when I found myself unemployed back in 1981 »,
she recalls.
Trundging
door to door ; seeking women who might be interested in a dyeing
association, she had a few investors’ support. But she needed a small
loan from a UNDP program to start the business, build the school and hire
the teachers.
Things
have gone well. She has been able to buy out the investors and purchase a
computer. She has attended training conferences in Africa and abroad.
There’s show-room for the dyed cloth and the finished dresses. She has
her own web site on the Internet.
« These
girls seed to see success and know someone who is succeding » she
says. « I want to share what God has given me, as well let them see
that they can make a difference ».
Outside
the green-painted center, youngsters gather around for her approval.
« We have so much work to do, » she says, smiling. « The
children are our future. ».
According
to Adama Samassekou, Mali’s minister for primary aducation, 70 percent
of the women and girls in the country are illiterate. Only 37 percent of
those girls are in school. In rural areas, the percentages are highet.
Small
wonder that President Alpha Oumar Konare, the popular head of state, and
his democratic government, have made education a priority. « We have
to educate our people in
order to move our country forward, » he insists in a interview.
« In
order for aid to be successful, it also has to involve the local society
from the beginning, ». He adds. « When NGO’s (non-government
organizations) come to Mali to help, they cannot say they were successful
unless the local society participates and is able to carry on when they
leave ».
The
grandiose projects attempted , with Russian and Chinese help, by
Mali’s earlier Socialist government had little lasting impact. Education
does.
In
the past, the people and leaders of Mali have had few resources with which
to work. That will not change any time soon.
In
one neighborhood on the outskirts of Bamako, a capital city that shelters
800,000 another revolution is taking place, small but significant.
Many
of the neighborhood’s residents fied conflict and poverty in the north.
The place to which they came now is called Twilight District, because
newcomers labored in the dusk and dark to build mud-brick homes. They
could not be caught doing it in the daylight, since they had no building
permits.
« There
was no planning for these neighborhoods, » says Mamadou Gueye, a
translator and professor at the University of Mali. « They just
popped up. Some almost overnight. »
Maïga
Oumaissa Maïga arrived at Twilight about six years ago from Gao, a small
city at the edge of the desert in northeastern Mali. A Tuareg rebellion
against government forces made life even more difficult. So Maïga, like
many of her neighbors, fied to the south and the safety of Bamako.
« I
didn’t want to die. » she says. « I wanted to survive ».
It
has been a difficult six, years, but she perseveres, thanks to a
government program that assists her and her neighbors.
They
formed a women’s coorperative to qualify for small UNDP loans, to buy
tools and materials. With those, and some know-how, they make cotton
thread that’s used to weave cloth on two small looms.
Mervin Aubespin
"BEYOND
TIMBUKTU : CHANGES COME TO MALI"
Recently
an adviser to the coop learned of a faster loom, used by Vietnamese women,
that produces wider cloth. Tracking down someone who knew what it looked
like, the adviser helped build a copy for the Twilight District co-op. An
innovation from half a world away, in Vietnam, was introduced to help Maïga
and her neighbors.
The
co-op also sells clothes made from the traditional mud cloth, as well as
leather products, straw baskets and other items.
Maïga,
the co-op’s president, says by working together the members earn a stake
in their own furure. The extra money produced by sales of their hand-made
products allows the group to buy supplies and establish savings.
« We
also were able to get a school started that we all can benefit from »,
she adds. « Most of the women enjoy the school. It will be good for
our future ».
A
few yards away a young girl, perhaps ten years old, uses a long rope to
draw water from a well. She pours the murky, filty-looking liquid into
plastic containers.
Nearby,
dust-coated youngsters in
tattered clothes, or no clothes at all, play in the rutted road.
« Sometimes
the best we can do is celebrate small victories », says Gueye, the
translator, gesturing toward the well.
Custom
and tradition dictate that, throughout rural Mali, women do most of the
work. They raise the children, cook the food, plant and harvest the crops,
maintain the household, fetch the water, and when time permits, take on
other jobs to earn extra income.
As
it always has been in the rural villages, men do little or no real work.
They
spend their days talking politics, discussing the business of the village.
On rare occasions they might help build a house, says Naremama Keita, who
leads a women’s group in kankaba.
These
days, with the help of UNDP and donor countries, a major human rights
initiative is empowering women to play a more significant role in society.
UN
officials warn that progress on this front won’t come easily. This is a
country where over 90 percent of the women have been subjected to genital
mutilation, and men are allowed up to four wives.
Once
part of French West Africa, Mali, the largest country in West Africa is
about the size of Texas and California combined.
In
the North, the Sahara covers 58 percent of the land mass. Rainfall is
minimal or nonexistent.
In
the South, there’s enough precipitation for cultivation. In between, in
the flat Sahel, unpredictable weather causes great havoc.
Droughts
in the 1970s devastated the Sahel. People starved, and almost half the
livestock died.
Farmers
ate their planting seeds and stripped leaves from the few trees and bushes
that survived. A second drought in the 1980s made the problem even worst.
Dogons
of the Sahel 
Anakaga
is a village in the Sahel, about 200 miles north east of Bamako. It’s
home to the Dogon people, who live on the rocky Bandiagara Escarpment. The
Dogon are famous for their artistry and their traditional dances.
Difficult
to reach on primitive roads, they have been isolated in this area since
the 15th century.
For
years Aïssata Tamboura pounded millet in Anakaga, using a long wooden
pole and wooden bucket. The job was hard. It took hours to pound millet
into meal. Hauling water was equally arduous.
Then
Roman Imboden and his “ magic machine” arrived.
Life
improved for Tamboura and the rest of the village.
The
“ magic machine” grinds millet in minutes. It also can charge a
battery and pump enough water for four families at a time. It can run a
generator to power welding equipment, which is necessary for fixing farm
tools. It can supply electricity to about 200 light bulbs, for a couple of
hours a day.
The
“magic machine” is actually a diesel motor invented by Imboden, a
Swiss national who worked in West Africa. But villagers call it “the
magic machine” because it produces dramatic changes in their lives.
Obtained with the help of UNDP and Mali’s government, it was paid for by
the women of the village, who in turn charge a small fee for its use.
“Since
we have lights we now are able to have classes, and many of us are going
to school”, says Tamboura, chair-person of the women’s group that
raised the money for the motor. “We also have time to make beer and to
rest”.
According
to Finn Tore Rose, a Norwegian who is UNDP’s resident representative in
Mali, the Multipurpose Platform, as the motor is officially called, is a
perfect example of real, sustainable development.
“When
people in the villages can clearly see an effort and how it benefits them,
we are reaching our objective”, he says. “Also such a project makes it
possible to train someone in the village to repair the motor, giving them
a usable skill”.
After
Mali gained its independence from France almost 30 years ago, the new
government, headed by Modibo Keïta, embraced socialism and aligned itself
with China and the Soviet Union. Then followed big, glamorous development
projects – a bridge over the River Niger, a sport stadium, some
factories – and heavy assistance to the military.
Bad
decisions and bad government produced citizen unrest. Keïta was
overthrown in a bloodles coup stages by army officers, led by Moussa
Traore.
In
1991 Traore was overtbrown in a bloody coup by Lt. Col. Amadou Toure, who
gained considerable respect with a promise to hold multi-party elections.
The winner of those elections Alpha
Konare, became president in 1992.
Konare,
a former newspaper editor and university professor, established a more
liberal government and encouraged multiparty politics.
About
this time, says UNDP’s Rose, donor governments began to examine their
aid priorities.
These
days, more and more countries ask what the needy country itself is doing
to fight poverty. “It is projects like the diesel motor that could show
something concrete”, he explains.
The
motor has made a real difference in the lives of Anakaga’s people.
It’s
special, in part, because it’s capable of creating its own fuel.Besides
millet, it also grinds pourghere seed from a local plant. The seed oil,
when mixed with diesel fuel, can run the motor. “Sort of like perpetual
motion” Rose says.
Similar
motors have been delivered to 52 other villages in Mali. Each costs about
$1,000. “This will be the most famous project in West Africa in the next
five years”. Rose predicts.
The
well at Kerou
A
few milles from Anakaga, the people of the Kerou village live much the
same as they did a hundred years ago. UNDP staff talked with them before
offering aid. The locals decided that better water was their top priority.
They needed a new well.
At
the old well, a youngster urges a camel to pull the rope that raises a
goatskin bucket. The water in the bucket’is muddy and sour-smelling.
About
100 yards away a concrete wall keeps animals from polluting the new well.
Its floor is concrete too. The women charged with overseeing it remind
neighbors that they’ll be fined if they walk on the concrete in shoes.
On the well casement an artist has painted pictures showing how to purify
the water.
Since
few people here can read, the pictures are necessary, says Gueye the
translator.
“This
project is a success because UNDP staff and representatives from a donor
country came to the village, and the villagers themselves were able to
decide what was more important” he says.
Driving
from Kerou to Bamako, then further south on a two-lane road, a visitor
watches the landscape change drastically. Dust replaces sand. Trees appear.
The countryside begins to green up a bit.
This
could be the breadbasket of Mali. The fields of corn, millet and
vegetables hint that the soil is fertile. Mile after mile, cotton grows on
one side of the road and cattle graze on the other.
At
Salamale, about 80 miles south of Bamako, the change is obvious. More than
2,000 live in the village, which host several self-help projects. Its
mud-hut homes are topped with grass thatch roofs. Cooking pots sit outside
the front doors.
A
closer look reveals some more recent building , scattered among the old.
One will house a new clinic and a new village store. One will be the
meeting place for a women’s group, and an adult learning program.
In
a single classroom, first and second-graders fill every available seat.
They will learn to read, write and think. On their soulders sits the
future of Mali. They seem eager for the task. Hands shoot up when the
teacher, Mamadi Camara, poses questions.
Although
forced to combine the first two classes in his six-grade school, Camara
hears no complaints “ the complaints would come if they didin’t come
to school”, he says.
A
few yards away, in a small, poorly-lit classroom, students at the Study
and Dvelopment Center practice reading exercises with vocational teacher
Karim Coulibaly.
These
are students who cannot attend regular school because they work, or are
needed at home by parents. Here they train in a vocation, while learning
to read and write.
When
Coulibaly isn’t teaching, he’s preparing for a nightly radio program.
He set up his station in a small hut, using salvaged parts. He broadcasts
on a wide range of topics, from young people’s health issues to
women’s role in families. It’s a natural extension of his teaching.
Most
of the world considers Mali, and its villages, the middle of nowhere. But
in the town Kangaba, a group of about 50 women gather to read, write and
claculate. They are convinced life will improve, if they band together in
a common cause. With education and opportunity, they expect to take more
visible leadership roles.
In
this small, out-of-the-way place, their men do little work. Mostly they
sit around and talk, and think of ways to get additional wives.
« One
gets the feeling that things are about to change here », one
volunteer worker observed, “and the men haven’t even noticed “.
The writer, Mervin Aubespin, is
an associate editor of the Courrier-Journal. He recently returned from a
UNDP fact-finding tour of Mali.
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