Arles 2016 : Swinging Bamako

In 1960, Mali became independent and, in the middle of the Cold War, chose to join the socialist bloc and definitively break with its colonial past. In this political context, seven young Malian students were sent to Cuba in 1964. A year later, they formed a band called Las Maravillas de Mali, which, despite themselves, symbolised alliances with the Eastern bloc and represented the joyous face of a ‘proletarian internationalism’ that Cuba aspired to lead. Swinging Bamako recounts an odyssey between Bamako and Havana worthy of “Back to the Future”, a multi-sensory journey mixing history with a small and a capital ‘h’: the birth of postcolonial Africa, a continent with much at stake, and one of its all-time greatest groups. For, to understand today’s Africa, it is necessary to delve back into its past.

Richard Minier, Thomas Mondo et Madé Taounza