Monthly Archives: March 2012

Brief update for Friday, March 30

I’m due to resume teaching this afternoon after a two-week hiatus, and I cannot get back to my teaching and research responsibilities while keeping up with events in anything approaching real time on this blog. Even assuming that classes remain … Continue reading

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The devil they don’t know

Post-coup situation update, Wednesday, March 28: At 10:00 p.m. Tuesday night an army lawyer appeared on ORTM TV and announced that Mali now has a new constitution, composed of 70 articles, which he proceeded to read one by one. This … Continue reading

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Mali’s coup leaders: Making it up as they go along

Post-coup situation update, Tuesday, March 27: For many Bamakois, today was the first day back at work since last week’s coup, following yesterday’s holiday commemorating the 1991 ouster of dictator Moussa Traoré. Civil servants had a strong incentive to get … Continue reading

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Good riddance, ATT?

[Post-coup situation update for Sunday evening, March 25: Life in Bamako continues to normalize. Fuel stations are open, and new imports of gasoline and diesel have been authorized across Mali’s otherwise sealed borders. I have heard no reports of gunfire … Continue reading

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Amadou Sanogo: Power is his middle name

As events have unfolded since Mali’s coup d’état on Thursday, much has come to light concerning the coup’s apparent leader, Captain Amadou Haya Sanogo, President of the Comité Nationale pour le Redressement de la Démocratie et la Restauration de l’Etat … Continue reading

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The Coup, Day Four

7:00 a.m.: Hèrè sira, as they say in Bamanan — we spent a peaceful night. I have not heard further shooting or booms of any kind since 11:15 last night. Power was only out for a couple of hours after … Continue reading

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The Coup, Day Three

7:30 a.m.: Power was cut for several hours overnight. Unfortunately the electrical supply was already becoming irregular in the weeks before the coup, due to increasing demand during the hot season (March through early June). But until Thursday, outages came … Continue reading

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Coup update, Thursday March 22

7:30 a.m.: Whereas last night the only shooting we heard came from across the river, this morning we can hear shots coming from multiple directions. A friend who lives 300m away texted me a few minutes ago to say “bandits” … Continue reading

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Gunfire across the Niger

Our first indication of trouble brewing comes around 1 p.m. Wednesday, when our son’s daycare phones to ask us to bring him home four hours early. They are closing up, they say, because of possible violence in downtown Bamako. Some … Continue reading

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This book will change your life

(A shameless plug, with some reflections thrown in) This book is not about Bamako, my current home, although some of the field research for it was conducted here. Nor is it a book about Brazzaville, Congo, although most of the … Continue reading

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