Discover Malian Culture: The 4 Marvellous M's
Explore the cornerstones of Mali’s culture: manuscripts, music, monuments, and modern art
By Google Arts & Culture
Camel Riders in the Desert of Timbuktu (2011) by Festival au Desert Timbuktu Renaissance
M is for Mali
Timbuktu is a city fabled to exist at the edge of the world, where the southern stretches of the Sahara desert end and a world of rich scholarly tradition, architectural wonder, and abound artistic creativity begins. In reality, it’s located in the West African country of Mali, a place filled to the brim with culture to explore.
Destruction de manuscrits par les djihadistes à l'Institut Ahmed Baba à Tombouctou en 2012 SAVAMA-DCI
Mali’s story has often been told with attention to the violence and political unrest
the nation has experienced, namely the 2012 coup and subsequent ten-month Jihadist occupation. But the Malian people have not let their culture become a victim of destruction.
Timbuktu 20 by UNESCO UNESCO World Heritage
From rescuing the ancient manuscripts that families safeguarded for years from total destruction, to the contemporary artistic movements that are rising from times of turmoil, the resilience of Mali’s people and culture has been proven.
Mali map
Get to know the cornerstones of Malian culture through the four M’s…
Quran manuscript close up SAVAMA-DCI
M is for Manuscripts
Timbuktu’s literary history represents a key pillar of the cultural legacy that Mali has inherited and preserved over the centuries. Erudite knowledge of the Islamic world, mainly of the 14th to 16th centuries, was documented in beautiful script on decorated folios known today as the Timbuktu manuscripts.
Conservation de manuscrits dans des malles avant le déménagement SAVAMA-DCI
Though the known texts number around 377,000 pages, the manuscripts owe their survival to the individual families and households of Timbuktu who have safeguarded them for centuries, and to the people who evacuated them to safety after extremists seized the city.
Manuscript scanning Instruments for Africa
The manuscripts are now under the protection of SAVAMA-DCI, the guardians of the manuscripts
, who seek to document digitize the artefacts that remain while maintaining Mali’s tradition of academic study.
Khaira Arby Performs at the Festival Au Désert (2012) by Festival au Désert Timbuktu Renaissance
M is for Music
From tribal song and dance
accompanied by unique traditional instruments
to the Festival of the Desert that has hosted the likes of U2 and Mali’s own Fatoumata Diawara, Mali is a place infused with rhythm courtesy of a widespread passion for music.
Fatoumata Diawara
While late 20th century vinyl collections
capture the sound of Mali’s musical golden age, iterations of which can be heard in American blues, Grammy-award nominee Fatoumata Diawara
ushers Malian music to the front of the world music scene, embedding her heritage into every track she performs.
M is for Monuments
A third layer of Mali’s unique cultural landscape is made up of its mosques, mausoleums and monuments.
A crowd in front of the Great Mosque of Djenné Instruments for Africa
These structures are not just iterations of historic mud architectural styles and commemorations of past events; they are kept alive by the communities who have maintained for centuries
and the efforts to restore them
after their recent destruction by those attempting to shake the foundations of Malian culture and identity.
Several factors, from political unrest and the end of tourism
to globalization
and pollution
, put Mali’s monuments, and its culture at large, at risk. Exploring monuments like the Great Mosque of Djenne in 3D
, or the Great Mosque of Niono in Street View
, it’s clear that this built heritage is worth protecting and preserving.
Dramane Toloba artworks Instruments for Africa
M is for Modern Art
Carrying out Mali’s lasting legacy of creativity and vibrant culture are the country’s talented current generation of contemporary artists.
Ange Dakouo Instruments for Africa
Painters, sculptors, and mixed-media creators reflect the colour and chaos that they see in the world around them, entwining Mali’s expressive culture with their own unique perspectives, ambitions and explorations.
Opa Bathily and his artwork Instruments for Africa
Addressing the difficulties and destruction that Mali has endured throughout both recent and colonial history, the country’s art scene might represent a space in which Mali’s past can be processed and, through culture and creativity, a future can be rebuilt.
Opa Bathily artwork1 Instruments for Africa
“The day we admit that we lost everything for the profit of others; that day we can truly begin to rediscover ourselves,” says Malian contemporary artist Amadou Sanogo.
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