Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Arising from drastically different world views, misconceptions between foreign NGOs working in Mali and local Malians often lead to actions that perpetuate unjust power dynamics and/or do more harm than good. In order to better align NGO sustainable development efforts in ways that are beneficial to the populations they serve, it is crucial to listen to perspectives that are typically marginalized in our current global system. This thesis explores synergizing NGO-Malian artist partnerships in innovative, mutually understandable, and mutually beneficial ways to increase NGO project effectiveness and efficiency. This case study features twelve interviews with Malian dancers and musicians residing in Bamako, Mali. The intersections between this data and current academic sources indicate suggested 1) processes to cultivate understanding and mindfully work to shift unjust power dynamics; and 2) projects (themes, partnerships with existing opportunities, and innovations) that demonstrate promising, new potential to improve development efforts. / 2014-12-16

<p>The purpose of this essay is on the one hand to study Sub-Saharan Africa from a comparative perspective to analyze different explanations to democratization and on the other hand to compare the democratization of the most interesting cases found. To fulfil the purpose, the essay is divided into a quantitative and a qualitative part. The quantitative part starts from four different theories of democratization and thus has a deductive theory testing approach. We intend to use four theories: the modernization theory, the theory of stable institutions as a prerequisite for democratization, political culture and ethnic diversity as an obstacle for democratization, to test how they correspond with the democratic situation in Africa, and at the same time find deviant cases. The second part of the study takes its start from an inductive perspective and examines institutions and citizens of the deviant cases. We have found that the stable institutions indicator and the socioeconomic indicators are the ones out of our indicators that best can explain democratization in Sub-Saharan Africa. The quantitative study also reveals two cases that are democracies although they do not follow the general patterns of democratization. Our research concludes that the most striking resemblance between our deviant cases, Benin and Mali, is that they have both developed stable institutions. This could be one reason why they have managed to democratize despite their harsh conditions.</p>

L'Étranger ne voit que ce qu'il sait est un documentaire interactif sur le Mali présenté sur support cédérom. Il s'agit d'une œuvre poétique à saveur culturelle proposant une immersion heuristique de la culture malienne contemporaine, par des rencontres intimes avec certaines personnes et certains objets qui lui sont rattachés. Le documentaire permet une déambulation dans un univers malien échelonné sur différents niveaux d'exploration (le superficiel, l'intime et l'âme). C'est par une grammaire interactive particulière que l'interacteur est amené à se construire une appréciation personnelle de la culture malienne. Le programme est composé de cinq mondes, qui correspondent à cinq lieux du Mali, dans lesquels l'interacteur peut se déplacer à sa guise et à son rythme. Les mondes offrent la possibilité d'approfondir l'expérience interculturelle de l'interacteur par la rencontre plus intime de quinze objets ou personnes. Le projet expérimente des modalités d'interactions entre le programme et l'usager générant des moyens d'expression poétique en vue d'atteindre le public-cible au plus profond de sa sensibilité. En somme, le documentaire tend, d'une part, à témoigner de différents aspects de la culture malienne par des stratégies d'expression poétique et, d'autre part, à repousser les limites du genre en ce qui concerne le documentaire interactif. Il s'adresse à un public adulte québécois intéressé et stimulé par les œuvres poétiques. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : culture, documentaire, émotion, exploration, immersion, interactivité, Mali, multimédia, poétique.

Texte remanié de: Thèse de doctorat--Histoire--Paris I-Panthéon Sorbonne, 2006. Titre de soutenance : Introduction à l'histoire du peuplement du pays bo du nord-ouest : Mali. / Bibliogr. p. 459-481.

Zugl.: Zürich, Univ., Diss., 2006

This dissertation clarifies ethnoarchaeology's role in post-positivist epistemology through both a critical re-examination of ethnoarchaeology's position within archaeology and a study of household vessel exchange and consumption in the Inland Niger Delta of Mali. I argue that ethnoarchaeology meets its epistemic raison d'etre by achieving theoretical independence from archaeology's general theories. Independence is "built-in" to ethnoarchaeological study by focusing explicitly on the way material culture is used in daily practice; in particular, by re-embedding material culture in the "modern" contexts where it is used. Ceramic exchange in the Inland Niger Delta can not be understood apart from either the exchange and consumption of other industrial household vessels or the political economies women experience within patrilineal households. Household vessels are distinctly women's tools in the Delta and their consumption is an intimate part of the way women resist exploitation and the appropriation of their wealth within household political economies. The different roles vessels play are manifest in the distances these objects travel during consumption and are also materialized by their location within house compounds. Enamel vessels are used in displays of social and economic capital related to marriage that insulate women from exploitation; aluminum vessels are expensive items bought as part of marriage trousseaus; and plastics are relatively low value items given as small gifts or bought in local markets to insulate small amounts of wealth from appropriation. Pottery is relatively marginal within household economies; yet, potters rely on the income ceramic production creates. Thus, potters use extensive marketing strategies to sell their wares to a relatively disinterested clientele in order to meet their own obligations within patrilineal households and to buy the other types of household vessels that they desire. The findings of thi

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Growth chamber trials were performed to investigate optimal conditions for the small scale production of isolate M12-4A of Fusarium oxysporum on substrate materials that are locally available to subsistence farmers in West Africa. Field trials were conducted in Mali to evaluate the effectiveness of F. oxysporum for the control of Striga hermonthica and to determine the host range of F. oxysporum. F. oxysporum grew and colonized substrates over a range of temperatures (24, 28 and 32 C). Chopped sorghum straw pieces, straw fibres, and glumes supported abundant mycelial growth. Full colonization of the substrates was observed within 10 days. Production of infective propagules (microconidia and macroconidia) was optimum at 28 C. Optimum wetness of the substrates was obtained by soaking straw or glumes overnight. In field studies, the incorporation of 2.6 g of dried ground straw inoculum per sorghum seed pocket (120 cm$ sp2$), at a depth of 5 or 10 cm, resulted in a 60% reduction of emerged S. hermonthica 82 days after sowing. At harvest, biomass of Striga was also reduced by 70% and sorghum grain yield was almost doubled compared with the control. Sorghum, millet, maize, rice, fonio, cotton, cowpea, groundnut, okra and sorrel were immune to isolate M12-4A.

Fusarium oxysporum M12-4A fungus is being evaluated for the biocontrol of Striga hermonthica, a parasitic weed of African cereal crops. The production of M12-4A inoculum was assessed in four Malian villages using local technology and substrates. A delivery system using arabic gum to temporarily glue inoculum powder onto the crop seed was tested. In controlled conditions, coating of sorghum seeds with arabic gum and inoculum powder did not affect seed germination or inoculum viability. However, one week at 40°C significantly decreased the viability of the inoculum by 31%. Fungus growth and chlamydospore germination were also reduced by temperatures of 34 and 36°C. M12-4A was susceptible to the fungicide thiram (ED50 = 38.5mug). Field trials were conducted in Mali to evaluate the large-scale efficacy of the seed coating technology. F. oxysporum M12-4A was detected from some S. hermonthica tissue and soil samples using specific primers and Real Time PCR.