Waiting Around

Hi.  Not much to report from Bamako.  The city has resumed much of its daily activities, though there's still a lot of tension.  Yesterday, wedding parties on mopeds were out driving on the streets, blaring their horns like normal.  Unfortunately, though the participants were ready, the neighborhood mayors' offices were closed, leading to much confusion.  To my mind, this is a good example of where Bamako is emotionally right now; most people want to get on with their daily lives, but there's mass confusion among the political/elite class.  It's entirely unclear how this coup d'état is going to work itself out.  There are several demonstrations planned today, the 26 March, in remembrance of the day 21 years ago when Amadou Toumani Touré, the Malian president just overthrown by the coup, staged a coup of his own and overthrew Mali's dictator, Moussa Traoré!  The irony is not lost on Malians...

At this point, I'm just waiting around to see what happens.  I had been planning to go out today and begin kora and n'goni lessons again, but what with the demonstrations, I'm going to wait until tomorrow.  Several of my Fulbright colleagues have decided to leave the country, while several others have decided to stay and see if the situation worsens.  I'll also be staying, for the time being.

Exciting times!

Oh, and a quick political postscript.  There's been a fair amount of analysis in the world media of Mali's coup, and I've found much of it superficial, in that most commentators have universally condemned a coup against a "functioning democracy" that was less than two months away from presidential elections.

The problem is, many Malians didn't see the regime of ATT as a "functioning democracy."  The systemic corruption which has plagued Mali since the time of Moussa Traoré, but particularly during the last ten years, has been extremely frustrating to Malians of all walks of life.  Everyone from my host parents (members of Bamako's growing upper middle class) to my music teachers (who, if not at the poverty line, are not incredibly far from it), to my friend the Sotrama driver, to all the unemployed young guys who hang around my kora teacher's neighborhood, have increasingly complained about corruption since I've been here.  International commentators who see the military coup as purely related to the mismanagement of Mali's war against Touareg rebels in the North are seriously missing the point: this coup was the apotheosis of years and years of frustration.  The all-inclusive, nobody's-at-fault politics of ATT's presidency have, at least in the eyes of many of the Malians I've spoken to, seriously undermined the political and societal institutions of the state.  The poor performance of the Malian Army in the North during this latest Tuareg rebellion are a symptom of Mali's problems as a whole, a microcosm of the macrocosm of Mali's universal corruption.

I could go on in this vein, but my friend and fellow Mali Fulbright Scholar, Bruce Whitehouse, has already written an excellent analysis of what I think is the underpinnings of the coup.  You can read it here:

http://bamakobruce.wordpress.com/2012/03/25/good-riddance-att/

Another Unscheduled Interruption: Coup d'état edition

As many of you are no doubt aware, Mali is in the midst of a coup d'état.  Low-ranking soldiers from the nearby military base of Kati, incensed by the poor management of the ongoing fighting in the north of Mali between government forces and Touareg rebels, have seized control of the national radio and television stations, occupied the presidential palace, declared martial law, suspended the constitution, and instituted a nationwide curfew.  All government offices are closed, as are the gas stations and most banks.  The putschists have stated that they will return power to a democratically-elected president after the rebellion in the north has been put down.  They have been condemned by the international community, including the American, French, and Algerian governments, and the Economic Community of West African States, an influential coalition of regional governments.

The (former?) president, Amadou Toumani Touré, is reported to be in a loyalist military camp here in Bamako, purportedly under the protection of the elite "Red Berets" of the Presidential Guard.  There has been intermittent gunfire and looting since yesterday evening, as well as the theft of cars by rogue military, police, and gendarmes.  Mali's borders, including the Bamako Sénou Airport, have been closed.  That said, the situation is relatively calm in the streets for a coup; there's a lot less traffic than normal, and almost no gasoline to be found, so most people seem to be sticking close to home.

This just in: my host father's sister is married to the Malian Minister of Economy and Finance, whose house has apparently just been ransacked.  The Minister is in hiding, and my host father, his sister, and her children have taken shelter in a neighboring compound.  Rogue soldiers, firing shots in the air, emptied the house of inhabitants before looting everything inside and breaking windows and doors.  Also, this morning my host mother was apparently at the house of the General Amidou Sissoko, the second in command after the Malian Chef d'état Majeur, essentially the chief Malian military commander, when it, too, was ransacked.  Her cousin, the general's wife, managed to convince the soldiers not to "requisition" her car, as it wasn't government property.  The general is also in hiding.

From what I can tell, low-level soldiers (by far the majority of the soldiers behind the coup) are taking advantage of the chaos to make up for their chronic low pay and settle scores with higher-ranking government officials and officers.  I've heard of the looting of half a dozen houses of ministers, deputies (i.e. members of the Malian House of Representatives), generals, and the like.  So far, this doesn't seem to have spread to the general population.

I'm safe at my host family's house in Bako Djikoroni, some distance from the center of town, the American Embassy, and the military base where ATT is currently hiding.  I'm not overly worried about looters; the house is buried in the middle of a neighborhood, and my host family isn't connected to the government or military.  So, no worries!

More news as it comes.

Theme song for the week: tie between "Kele Magni De" (Fighting is bad) and the Sunjata epic fragment "Kele ye Mande ci" (War has brought down the Mande).