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In October, ASOR staff and their partners in the Sahel attended the 1st Annual ICOM-Africa Meeting in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The event’s focus on inclusion, learning, and sustainability reflects the evolving role of African museums as they adapt to the needs of local communities and strive to engage a global audience. ASOR congratulates Mr. Jean-Paul Koudougou, president of ICOM-Africa, and all of the other organizers for such a successful event.

ASOR CHI’s recent work includes strengthening networks for the collaborative protection of cultural and religious heritage in the Sahel and northern Africa through the documentation and promotion of cultural heritage sites belonging to religious and ethnic minorities. This initiative has resulted in over 800 heritage sites documented, including nearly one third of those sites severely damaged or in disrepair. ASOR has developed an interactive database through Google Maps to share ASOR’s efforts widely.

Death and memory are commonalities across human societies. In August, ASOR’s partner AESPAT developed and led a three-day event to clean and restore two cemeteries in the village of Nafégué in Mali. Events like this offer a powerful way for people to unite around the shared experience of loss and remembrance, to learn more about each other, and to build the relationships needed to achieve common goals.

Heritage protection is most effective and rewarding as a collaborative pursuit. To help build connections between heritage advocates in Burkina Faso, ASOR and its partners organized a one-day workshop in the capital of Ouagadougou where attendees could discuss the past, present, and future of cultural and religious heritage protection in the country.

Textile production in Mali’s Dogon Country has deep roots, but the craft is under pressure from industrial manufacture and the disruption of knowledge transfer between generations. ASOR and Association Dogon Initiatives (ADI) hosted a heritage event to raise awareness about the shared history of textile production among the inhabitants of the Dogon region and to promote its revival through wider participation in its practice. At the event, attendees learned how to process cotton and spin thread while listening to the music of a local dance group.

Blacksmiths in Burkina Faso play an important role in their communities but are also feared due to their special knowledge and associations with witchcraft. Collaborative heritage education programs help to counter this stigma, as demonstrated by the three-day event that brought together local minority communities in the town of Bouria. Through ASOR’s collaboration with its local partner in the region, attendees were able to learn more about each other’s traditions and counter misconceptions.

On April 11-13, ASOR CHI hosted a three-day symposium, Cultural Heritages Initiatives in Africa Today, which highlighted the work of local heritage professionals, academics, and civil society organizations to protect, preserve, and promote cultural heritage in North Africa and the Sahel. ASOR welcomes you to view the symposium recordings.