Learn about the people and place sof Mali.

This catalogue introduces readers to Malian photographers Malick Sidibé and Seydou Keïta and others whose images visualize an influential form of post-colonial African identity.

It's Mali's sixth birthday and she's excited. As more and more guests arrive, so do more and more gifts. But when her presents start to push her guests out of the house, Mali has to learn an important life lesson about the things that matter most. Will she choose more presents or more family and friends? Read this delightful, beautiful book and find out! The book doesn't end when the story's over! Adults, keep reading for interactive activities to extend the lesson.

Seydou Keita was born in Bamako, Mali in 1921, then part of the colony of French Sudan and a bustling transportation hub on the route to Dakar. With a Kodak Brownie given to him by his uncle, Keita took up photography at the age of 14, going on to establish what would become Bamako's most successful portraiture enterprise of the 1950s and 60s. "Photographs, Bamako, Mali 1949-1970" draws on an expanded archive to offer over 400 portraits, mostly unpublished, from the height of the photographer's productivity in downtown Bamako. Providing lushly patterned backdrops and props that now serve to date distinct periods in his career, the artist often styled his subjects but also encouraged their active participation, hanging sample portraits around the studio as inspiration. Migratory youth, government officials, shop owners and Bamako's cultural elite all make appearances here, and while Keita's photographs served as both family record and cultural status symbol for the clients who commissioned them, these images have become a lasting visual record of Mali at that time. Seydou Keita's work made its first international appearance in 1991 and has been exhibited extensively across Europe, Japan and the United States.

Presenting more than 100 traditional, colorful puppets and masks used in Malian puppet theater, this book documents a collection that has been widely exhibited. One of the largest published surveys of Malian Bamana and Bozo puppet theater, it includes numerous pictures of puppets and masks in performance as well as detailed information on their size and construction. The text offers a historical overview of puppetry, focused on Africa, and a description of the cultural tradition that gave rise to and sustains Malian Sogo B puppet theatre, a community-based, multi-media spectacle. This is an excellent reference for anyone interested in puppetry, performance theater, masquerade, African music and dance, and African sculpture.

The story of Mali, as seen through the eyes of a griot, a teller of stories and singer of history.