Alongside Oumou Sidibe, Gregory Mann, and Madina Thiam, I am the co-director of the Projet Archives des Femmes du Mali in Bamako, Mali. This project conserves the endangered papers of Malian women involved in the Independence movement and in post-colonial gender-based activism. In partnership with Mali’s Ministry of Women, Children, and the Family, the collected archives are housed at Mali’s leading gender studies library, the Centre Nationale d’Information et Documentation sur la Femme et l’Enfant, where they are in the process of being digitized and made accessible to scholars and students. With the University of Bamako, we have also held several summer workshops with Malian women pursuing their M.A. and Ph.D. degrees, focused on skill-building around research and job-seeking. In 2023, we will begin offering research grants for Malian scholars, students, and journalists to conduct independent research using these collections.

Our project launched in 2018. To date, we have conserved the papers of 7 activists:

  • Bachata Djire (Nationalist activist, pan-Africanist activist, former director of Mali’s National Literacy Program)

  • Ba Tounkara (Griotte to President Modibo Keita)

  •  Oumou Coulibaly (Mayor, entrepreneurship trainer)

  • Mafoune Sangare (Member of the Union Nationale des Femmes du Mali, 1974-1991; co-founder of the Union Nationale des Associations des Femmes Musulmanes du Mali, 1995-present)

  • Oumeissa Maiga (Director of a women’s craft cooperative)

  • Kadidiatou Togola (member of the Union Nationale des Femmes du Mali, 1974-1991; co-founder of the Union Nationale des Associations des Femmes Musulmanes du Mali, 1995-present)

  • Assa Diallo (Curriculum director of the Ecole de Santé Supérieur, member of the Union Nationale des Femmes du Mali; founder of the NGO CADEF)

    We have benefited from the generous support of the UCLA Modern Endangered Archives Program, the US Embassy in Bamako Public Affairs Section, the Columbia University Collaborative to Advance Equity through Research, and the Columbia University History Department History in Action Program.