Musicman 1
Aminata Traoré ... A large African Voice
Badly
affected by wars, coups, epidemics ... Africa has long played the role of victim
face to rich countries. However, women and men have ceased to believe in the
economic and social development of the continent and fight with courage and
determination. Aminata Traoré is one of those influential African personalities
who believe strongly in the future of their continent. Here is an interview with
Aminata Traoré, a charismatic figure of anti-globalization, activist and
committed to the emancipation of Africa.
Could
you elaborate on your career and politics?
I was a
researcher at the University of Abidjan from 1975 to 1988 and seconded to the
Ministry of Women's Affairs of Côte
d'Ivoire. I then worked from 1988 to 1992 as a UNDP regional program to promote
the role of women and disadvantaged communities in managing water and
sanitation. This route has taught me to better understand the relationship
between cause and effect between the internal realities in our country and the
world order. I served as Minister of Culture and Tourism in Mali from 1997 to
2000. I am an essayist and one of the leaders of the social movement in Mali and
Africa. In the field, I try to live my speech about another possible world
through micro-projects in the fields of culture, infrastructure rehabilitation
of neighbourhoods, including mine, and the promotion of textiles and the African
crafts.
You're
also a writer and you just published Letter to the President of the French on
the Côte d'Ivoire and Africa in general, could you elaborate?
Given the
weight of France's former colonies, especially in Côte d'Ivoire, which was the
French showcase in West Africa, it seemed important to remind the President of
the French about the need for shared responsibility. Dealing with conflicts
plaguing Africa through the lens of tribalism allows France to escape, and to
trivialize the evils of capitalism in its former colonies. The Ivorian is indeed
one of the expressions of intolerance that is exacerbated by unemployment,
inequality and injustice whose causes are beyond macroeconomic populations. In
other words, the Ivorian as an ideology of exclusion, would not have emerged and
received an important echo had there not been misinformation of the public about
the shortness of the economic model of a prosperous Côte d'Ivoire. The bad
faith of the French authorities is understandable but unfortunate. Why not admit
the end of the capitalist model that has succeeded in Côte d'Ivoire, in the 60s
and 70s, and question the merits of the French presence in Côte d'Ivoire and
West Africa. What is not feasible is for France or some African elite
ideologically to be politically dependent.
Thanks
to your perseverance, you have awakened the conscience of continuous
dramatic African dependencies that plague the continent's development
efforts. What are your current actions and future?
Micro-projects
mentioned above, which I am working on, participate in the rehabilitation of the
gaze of Malians and Africans themselves and their country. At least that is my
wish because the renewed confidence in ourselves is fundamental, indeed
essential. The awakening of conscience that they will create will bring
Africans, non-voters and consumers, who are all citizens who participate in
making decisions in an informed way, to exercise their right to examine reforms
that are implemented on their behalf . The next World Social Forum in Bamako,
which will be one of the sites in January 2006 will, hopefully, be one of the
highlights of this work.
How do
you perceive the current relationship between France and Africa?
The
powerful relations between France and our country, that have always been uneven,
are even more so today. France can not take the risk of a genuine disengagement
in Africa that it needs in the race for market share imposed by neoliberalism.
She pretended to withdraw for failing to address the consequences of the past
and present depravity, but operates through various devices including the
Francophonie summit of Heads of State, military cooperation agreements, and
media economics. France could operate better, offering more cooperation with
Africa, but for the liberal virus eating into her bosom that she insists on
exporting. But in France, I have a network of friends and allies with whom I
fight, convinced that another Africa is possible only with a social Europe based
on solidarity.
December 16, 2005
Sophie
Galtier