SPOT on Mali continues

On the weekend of February 6th and 7th, the SPOT on Mali festival will once again take place in Mali’s capital, Bamako. RAMA is a permanent partner of the festival, which is inspired by the SPOT Festival in Aarhus and supported by funding from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

At SPOT on Mali, upcoming musicians get a showcase to present themselves to the world, and three selected artists will afterwards receive a mentorship program focusing on career development. The great kora star Madou Sidiki Diabaté is the festival’s flagship and serves as a major attraction with a tribute concert to his world‑famous uncle, Toumani Diabaté, who passed away last year. Madou has been to Denmark several times, including in a collaboration with RAMA, where he and his wife Safi Diabaté were soloists at Aarhus Festival Week together with RAMA’s festival orchestra.

At the same time, the collaboration with the SPOT Festival in Aarhus continues. At this May’s festival, an extraordinarily strong singer from Mali, Hawa Kassé Mady Diabaté, will perform a concert at Roots & Hybrid. RAMA’s Mali efforts are also reflected through other initiatives at SPOT Aarhus, which highlight the cultural cooperation between Mali and Denmark.

New Africa strategy

After last year’s SPOT on Mali festival, it was uncertain whether the festival could continue. But since the government has adopted a new Africa strategy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has decided that it makes sense to continue an already ongoing and successful cultural program. The cultural sector is explicitly included in the strategy as one of the concrete initiatives. The festival has initially been granted a two-year extension.

Alongside the festival, RAMA continues its work with capacity building in Mali and with grant support for young artists who work with art in a peace‑building context. There is also an ongoing focus on building bridges between cultural institutions in Mali and neighboring countries—benefiting the West African region, but also benefiting RAMA’s students, who will have more and better opportunities to learn in the region through educational exchanges.