Bozo fishermen use "karama" to mean "respect": for the people, for the river, for their roots and traditions. With this spirit, Karama looks at the Bozo of Bamako which are strongly stigmatized and isolated by the local society due to their poor living conditions on banks of the Niger river. Through schooling, the project aims at giving the opportunity to younger generations to compose their own future and apprehend the situation of their community with positivity, ambition and confidence.
The Bozo are semi-nomadic people who live in villages along the banks of the Niger River, which is at the heart of their livelihood activities and traditions. Demographic pressure in the Malian capital has confined the Bozos to open dump plots with an increasing stigma and social exclusion from society. In this framework there are currently thousands of Bozo kids in Bamako that have no access to education, while their future is further jeopardized by overexploitation and pollution of the river.
Education is an essential element for socio-economic inclusion, especially in the context of a marginalised community threatened by social isolation and environmental degradation. The social redemption of the Bozo people must necessarily pass through the education of the younger generations as they will be the future leaders of the community. Karama Mali aims at creating a school complex that could serve the whole Bozo community in finding solutions to improve their own living conditions.
Through schooling, this young generation will have the possibility of composing their future and of apprehending the situation of their community with positivity, ambition and confidence. With the inclusion of pedagogical activities that will help understanding and protecting the river as a socio-economic value, the Bozo community can regain its traditional role of guardian and custodian of the waters while finding its place in the contemporary Malian society.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
