Military Coup in Mali: African Initiative Fall 2020

Join the Department of African American Studies for an online discussion on the 2020 Military Coup in Mali. Speaker will be Dr. Yacine Badian Kouyate, along with two discussants. Dr. Kouyate is an accomplished musician, as well as scientist, whose compositions have been used in various documentaries. He is  a consultant for the Timbuktu Educational Foundation. He holds a Ph.D. in microbiology from UC Davis and a Master of Science in genetics from Moscow State University.

Dr Kouyate has conducted and published scientific research in academia and the biotechnology industry in the areas of plant virus interaction, genetics and immune diagnostics including a patented method and device for HIV analysis and detection. He is a faculty member at the World Indigenous Science Network.

On August 18, 2020, elements of the Malian military carried out an intervention that removed President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta. For two months prior to this military intervention, there had been popular mobilization and demonstrations calling for the resignation of the government.  This massive mobilization was opposed to the military incompetence in dealing with the insurgents who occupied the North, the substantial international military presence under the MINUSMA, along with the massive corruption of the politics and the society.

Tanks and armored vehicles went from Soundiata military base in Kati  to the capital, Bamako, as the military intervention ended up with one group proclaiming that they had seized state power. The soldiers detained several government officials including President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta who resigned and dissolved the government. It has been mooted that some of the soldiers who carried out this intervention had been trained by the U.S. Was this coup carried out to preempt the popular rebellion from spreading and establishing new networks? Was this a coup within a coup? For how long will the military remain in power? Will ECOWAS  and the African  Union be able to speed the transition to civilian rule?

Dr. Kouyate is presently based in Bamako. He is a student of cultural history and he ‘stewards the wisdom and traditions of thousands of years of the Bambara and Dogon peoples.’

 

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