The British Library

 A well-attended and enjoyable Private View of the Djenne Exhibition last Thursday- here in some pictures courtesy of David.  The first shows Roly Keating, the Director of the BL opening the event. Next to him Lisbet Rausing,  my fellow Swede whose  Arcadia fund has sponsored the Endangered Archives Programme since it began in 2004.   The evening took on a greater importance than expected, since a new funding or seven years for the EAP amounting to nine million pounds was announced.

 The speeches and drinks was held in front of the beautiful central glass book area- an architectural master piece, I think.

 The exhibition is one floor up.

When I gave my speech I first invited Kolado Landoure, a friend from Djenne who lives in London, to say a few words in Songhai, as a greeting to the Djenne people, since the whole event was filmed and will be shown in Bamako on the 7th of December when this exhibition will open at the Archives Nationales and  we hold a ceremony there. The British Embassy will co-sponsor this event, and Cat Evans, our ambassador to Mali,  happened to be in London on Thursday and was able to join us at the BL and also gave a speech:

I finished my address by asking for some money for the Djenne Manuscript Library, which is now totally lacking in funding, since the projects are finished. With only £6000-£7000 a year it can be kept going and Garba, our devoted archivist will keep his job. Let's see if something can be done...