How I went to a Mali culture and design expo and ended up befriending and creating a blog for an inspiring and charitable design co-op from Mali two days later in my apartment. Hugs all around.
Mali’s board of tourism arrived here in Barcelona last week at Palau Robert 107, Passeig de Gracia. I made a beeline for the Casa de Mali table to find out about the women involved.
Miriam Sidibe Dembelle, all sold out at the Mali fair in Barcelona
I was ushered to a table belonging to a woman named Mariam who’s organization, Musodanbe (“the dignity of women” in the language of Bambara), out of Kayes, Mali, West Africa was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005 as part of the ‘1,000 women project‘. She brings together women and teaches them the skills of dying, loom weaving, basket weaving, crocheting, and soap milling as well as cooking and French language courses in order to provide them with the tools for self-sufficiency and dignity in this very male dominated culture where women, without a husband or familial support, have little hope of escaping prostitution and a life of begging.
In addition to the charitable act, the things these women make are breathtaking. They use recycled bags and turn them into baskets. They weave and hand dye textiles, and create bags and rugs.
We spoke in French and then she handed me her only English pamphlet, poorly written and flagrantly advertising the services of a company in Harlem in several places that had nothing to do with her company. 
She had paid forty dollars to a woman to write this for her and was angry that she took advantage of her lack of English and used the space to advertise her own business. Her own email address and contact information was nowhere on the paper.
I asked her if she had a website. She does, she told me, but it’s very antiquated and too expensive to update.
Had she heard of blogs?
No.
A crowd gathered. Nobody could conceive of the idea that you could update a website and show pictures of your work, all for free. So I decided to help her. Obviously.
Two days later, she came over to our apartment with a flash drive. I created a wordpress blog for her and we became ‘amies’, hopefully for life.
She gave me this beautiful hand-dyed hand-sewn indigo fabric which now is draped over the back of my red couch. I am taking orders for these items in participation of a more seamless process of selling her gorgeous goods into the American and European retail markets.
Her organization, Musodanbe is part of the Association Yetaaso in Kayes, Mali, West Africa and this is her new blog. Product list and descriptions to follow.
