The communal, creative and spiritual contributions of women from West African cultures, the Baule, Senufo, Djula, Bamana, Bozo and Dogon, are embodied in these 45 black and white photographs made in 1989 and 1992. These extraordinary visual documents are witness to activities and rituals that may have been curtailed by recent insurrections and terrorist attacks.

"This book is the best thing I've seen on the question--not only of 'feminism' in its African articulation but also, more generally, on the question of how feminism emerges and what it means to those who espouse it."--Joan Scott, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton

Learn about the people and place sof Mali.

In a remote corner of West Africa, Monique Dembele saved lives and dispensed hope every day in a place where childbirth is a life-and-death matter. Monique and the Mango Rains is the compelling story of the authors decade-long friendship with Monique, an extraordinary midwife in rural Mali. It is a tale of Moniques unquenchable passion to better the lives of women and children in the face of poverty, unhappy marriages, and endless backbreaking work, as well as her tragic and ironic death. In the course of this deeply personal narrative, as readers immerse in village life and learn firsthand the rhythms of Moniques world, they come to know her as a friend, as a mother, and as an inspired woman who struggled to find her place in a male-dominated world.