During the outgoing phase (two years), I was based at Point Sud, Centre de recherche sur le savoir local, in Bamako where I have worked along the following lines.
Firstly, I received a linguistic training in Soninke, the main language around Kayes. Secondly, through field trips to Kayes and its surroundings I investigated the selected field sites. Thirdly, in Bamako I conducted archival work and interviews.
Fieldwork has demonstrated the existence of a field of interrelations between the founders of the Cooperative and the founders and workers of the RRK, as well as links with other villages notably Sobokou. Thus, rather than three independent field sites, I have navigated partly within a similar social milieu of former migrants returned from France, many of which accessed political and associative responsibilities after the political transition in Mali (1991-1992). This was important in order to understand the politics of heritagization: return appears as a political and social capital. To better understand these dynamics I have: (1) done a lot of research in archival repositories, mostly in Kayes, to understand these social and political logics and set the histories of the Cooperative and the Radio in a broader perspective; (2) widened the research to other field sites. To move beyond this sphere, I have developed fieldwork with women, and the discovery of women songs on migration has further oriented me towards a gendered approach of migratory experiences and discourses.
During the return phase (one year), I pursued the analysis of the ethnographic, archival and textual material collected
I contributed to the social history of the region with one academic paper on the history of the RRK as linked to mobility and other contributions on return migrations in the 1970s-1980s. I developed an analytical framework in order to analyze women’s songs, and notably songs that celebrate migrants that I have presented to various audiences and which is the basis for a second paper. I spent a lot of time working with a teacher in Soninke so as to grasp the subtlety of these texts. I highlight the nuances of these discourses that easily get lost with a retrospective gaze.
I also focused my work on the radio, in two directions. Firstly, I developed a seminar series on the radio with a colleague specialist on the topic in Paris, building on the emergence of this topic in African studies. Secondly, I collaborated with the Radio Rurale de Kayes to a plan to preserve their sound archives (see below).
In workshops in Bamako and back in France, I initiated discussions with various actors (associative, activists, institutional and academics) on the issue of migration. In several instances, I contributed public debates in France and beyond.
