Why is Mali's Culture Important?

Throughout history, Mali’s multiple ethnic groups have peaceably intermingled. 

The mix of trading, farming, fishing, hunting, and herding peoples created a distinct lifestyle full of storytelling, celebratory festivals for harvest and life transitions, and embellished with music, dance, and unique instruments.

Music fortified community relationships and cemented regional solidarity. 

Mali’s rich music traditions traveled to America with the slave trade and influenced the world, becoming Jazz, the Blues and Rock and the Grammys regularly honor Malian artists today.

Modern life has not been kind to these traditions, however.  As Mali moved away from subsistence farming and herding to a money-based system, life changed.

Now Malian youth are seduced by the lifestyles they see on global media, which extends even to remote villages. Today, as young Malians rush to cities to earn money, villages are left completely devoid of teenagers and young adults at certain times of the year. 

Contemporary Mali struggles with poor governance, corruption, high unemployment, and sub-standard educational opportunities.  And now that extremist ideologies seek to infiltrate peaceful and religiously tolerant Malian societies, Mali’s youth are at risk, as they search for a meaningful role in a complicated and competitive world.

Thus Mali's traditional way of life is rapidly disappearing, abandoned because of new economic necessities. Shifts in demographics have diminished esteem for Mali’s cultural and musical traditions. 

Mali’s traditional legends in music narrate history, urge interethnic cooperation, and dictate reconciliation strategies. Embedded in the traditional instruments, songs, and ceremonies are generations of lessons on how to live.