Newsletter n.°1, introduction (March 2020)

With this newsletter, the SlaFMig research team wants to introduce you to the project Slavery and Forced Migration in Kayes – Mali, in French: Esclavage et Migrations forcées in Kayes, Mali, a research action programme supported by the UKRI GCRF fund.

The project is a partnership between SOAS University of London (Principal Investigator: Dr. Marie Rodet), Copenhagen University (Co-I: Dr. Lotte Pelckmans), the Université des Sciences Juridiques et Politiques de Bamako (Co-I: Prof. Bakary Camara), and the Malian NGOs Temedt and Donkosira.

The project has been launched officially in February 2020, just a few weeks before the world entered into its first COVID-19 lockdown.

This newsletter highlights some of our major achievements from 2020 and will also share some of our prospective activities for 2021.

Despite the COVID-19 constraints, we have been able to work on setting up bilingual social media platforms, launching a first survey of protracted displacements linked to slavery in Mali, organizing training for our Malian research team workshop on productive and qualitative research methods in Western Mali and training paralegals to be deployed in the Kayes region.

We have also been writing some wider audience articles to announce and introduce our project and to highlight  the complex links between slavery and migration in post-slavery Mali. For further reading, see here.

In June 2020, Dr Paolo Gaibazzi kicked off the SlaFMig-AMIS lecture series on slavery and migration with a lecture on “Diasporic egalitarianism in the Soninke Diaspora in Angola”. We will soon announce the full SlaFMig lecture series programme for 2021.

Alternative outlets and forms of knowledge production, are the hallmark of our project, with Marie Rodet’s webdoc released last year as well as a graphic novel being finalized. Some theatre/TV sketches and hip hop/RAP concerts are also in the pipeline for 2021, as well as a new documentary movie on “Anti-Slavery Activism in the Diaspora”.

Academic rigor also remains high on our agenda and to that end several publication projects are in preparation and conference participation is also scheduled, whether on or offline.

We hope to inspire you and look forward to keeping you updated about slavery, mobility, protracted displacements and mobilisations in the Kayes region and beyond.

Welcome on board and please note that we are always happy to receive comments, suggestions and questions.

We are just an email away!

With our kindest greetings,

The research team @ SLAFMIG / EMIFO:

Marie Rodet, EMiFo Project Director
Lotte Pelckmans, Researcher on the EMiFo project
Bakary Camara, Researcher on the EMiFo project
Temedt & Donkosira, NGOs

2 Comments

  1. Dr. Mady Ibrahim Kanté-Reply
    11/03/2021 at 22:18

    Je suis Dr. Mady Ibrahim Kanté, enseignant à la faculté des sciences administratives et Politiques, USJP de Bamako, je suis de la région de Kayes précisément du cercle de Yelimané.
    Votre projet m’intéresse, notamment de vous apporter mon expertise dans le domaine. Je suis membre fondateur d’une équipe de négociation dans le milieu Soninké afin de trouver une solution de l’esclavage. En effet, pour certaines localités nous avons pu calmé la situation.

  2. 18/03/2023 at 22:04

    I really enjoy reading and also appreciate your work.

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