Segu: A Novel

By Maryse Condè

The year is 1797, and the kingdom of Segu is flourishing, fed by the wealth of its noblemen and the power of its warriors. The people of Segu, the Bambara, are guided by their griots and priests; their lives are ruled by the elements. But even their soothsayers can only hint at the changes to come, for the battle of the soul of Africa has begun. From the east comes a new religion, Islam, and from the West, the slave trade. Segu follows the life of Dousika Traore, the king’s most trusted advisor, and his four sons, whose fates embody the forces tearing at the fabric of the nation. There is Tiekoro, who renounces his people’s religion and embraces Islam; Siga, who defends tradition, but becomes a merchant; Naba, who is kidnapped by slave traders; and Malobali, who becomes a mercenary and halfhearted Christian.

Based on actual events, Segu transports the reader to a fascinating time in history, capturing the earthy spirituality, religious fervor, and violent nature of a people and a growing nation trying to cope with jihads, national rivalries, racism, amid the vagaries of commerce.

The Fortunes of Wangrin

By Amadou Hampâté Bâ

Amadou Hampâté Bâ was a distinguished Malian poet and scholar of African oral tradition and pre-colonial history.

Wangrin is a rogue and an operator, hustling both the colonial French and his own people. He is funny, outrageous, corrupt, traditional, and memorable. Bâ’s book bridges the chasm between oral and written literature. The stories about Wangrin are drawn from oral sources, but in the hands of this gifted writer these materials become transformed through the power of artistic imagination and license. This book is a classic in Francophone African literature.

Monique and the Mango Rains: Two Years with a Midwife in Mali

By Kris Holloway

What is it like to live and work in a remote corner of the world and befriend a courageous midwife who breaks traditional roles? This is the inspiring story of Monique Dembele, an accidental midwife who became a legend, and Kris Holloway, the young Peace Corps volunteer who became her closest confidante. In a small village in Mali, West Africa, Monique saved lives and dispensed hope every day in a place where childbirth is a life-and-death matter and where many children are buried before they cut a tooth.

Note: This was a Together Women Rise Book Club selection, and you can watch the recording or our event, with the author as our guest speaker HERE.

Dancing Skeletons: Life and Death in West Africa

By Katherine A. Dettwyler

Recommended by GAIA Vaccine Foundation – One of the most widely used ethnographies published in the last 20 years, this Margaret Mead Award winner has been used as required reading at more than 600 colleges and universities. This personal account by a biocultural anthropologist illuminates not-soon-forgotten messages involving the sobering aspects of fieldwork among malnourished children in West Africa. With nutritional anthropology at its core, Dancing Skeletons presents informal, engaging, and oftentimes dramatic stories that relate the author’s experiences conducting research in infant feeding and health in Mali.

Timbuktu (2014)

A cattle herder and his family who reside in the dunes of Timbuktu find their quiet lives – which are typically free of the Jihadists determined to control their faith – abruptly disturbed. Learn more here.

Bamako

Her marriage on the rocks, cabaret singer Mele returns home after a degrading night of work and finds her apartment complex made into a tribunal in which the institutions of international capitalism are put on trial. Her sister stands with peasants, farmers, and other citizens, appealing to the banking cabal for justice. A long night in pursuit of justice and a sultry evening of Malian life. (Ages 13+) Learn more here.

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