The coup against democracy in Mali

From a writer friend:

Here’s video of the coup announcement in Mali. Ridiculous. The screen is dark at first — they were having technical difficulties — but the image appears after 30 seconds or so. See the scene. As for the speech, it’s the usual pompous nonsense, poorly delivered by a junior officer out of his depth.

From a Malian friend:

In the last couple of hours, power has been usurped for a second time in our history by the military. They have overthrown the democratically-elected incumbent president who had a month left in office on his second and last term. We were preparing to vote on scheduled presidential elections in April …it’s a crushing blow to the democracy we built since the 1991 revolution which was won with the blood of 300+ students, trade union leaders and citizens protesting the 23 years of military rule of General Moussa Traore.

And here’s the second declaration, a short time ago. This one is briefer and given by Capt Sanogo who is the head of the junta:

More later.

Further Reading

How to unmake the world

In this wide-ranging conversation, para-disciplinary artist Nolan Oswald Dennis reflects on space, time, Blackness, and the limits of Western knowledge—offering a strategy for imagining grounded in African and anti-colonial traditions.

A migrant’s tale

On his latest EP, Kwame Brenya turns a failed migration into musical testimony—offering a biting critique of ECOWAS, broken borders, and the everyday collapse of pan-African ideals.

What Portugal forgets

In the film ‘Tales of Oblivion,’ Dulce Fernandes excavates the buried history of slavery in Portugal, challenging a national mythology built on sea voyages, silence, and selective memory.