MIAConnects holds Mali music workshop

The workshop, titled Music Industry for Beginners, brought together eight musicians and eight artist managers from conflict areas occupied by Boko Haram. It took place at the Kôrè Cultural Centre in Ségou, Mali, between 5 and 12 November with the participants taking part in a performance on 11 November to showcase what they had learnt in the past few days.

The workshop was facilitated by Zhu Culture director and Art Moves Africa president Luc Mayitoukou, Vincent Koala from Organisation des Dynamisations des Arts et Spectacles en Afrique (ODAS) and Seydoni Group and Tamani d'or delegate Fousseyni Traoré.

Festival sur le Niger Foundation director Mohamed Doumbia said the workshop was expected to have a lasting effect on the Malian music industry:

"The training has helped the beneficiaries strengthen their capacity and equipped them with the necessary tools and knowledge needed for the music industry. It provided training pertaining to their rights, how to protect their works and how to plan their careers,” he said.

“The beneficiaries of the workshop will be able to apply and share the knowledge acquired with others artists and managers. As time goes by it will have measurable outcomes on the local sector.”

There is a crucial need to boost and professionalise the African music sector, especially in countries affected by conflict. To this effect, the Music In Africa Foundation launched earlier this year the MIAConnects project which will operate in seven conflict countries until the end of 2018. The Foundation’s vision for this particular project is to reignite the music scenes in the seven countries, namely Chad, Mali, Niger, Nigeria (North), Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan.

The project seeks to develop skills though workshops, identify new talent, develop recording facilities, provide mobility support for artists to tour in the countries, regionally and internationally, and commission research into the music industries of the affected countries and regions.

More about MIAConnects

MIAConnects is a multi-faceted music development initiative aiming to support the music sectors of African countries affected by conflict. The project is implemented by the Music In Africa Foundation together with partners in seven focus countries. It is supported by the German Federal Foreign Office and Siemens Stiftung.

For more information, click here.