From the Endangered Archives Programme (EAP449), Social History and Cultural Heritage of Mali brings together a remarkable visual record of a nation in transition.
The collection comprises around 27,000 digitised negatives and prints from the archives of Abdourahmane Sakaly and Mamadou Cissé—two of Mali’s earliest professional photographers. Spanning the 1940s to the 1960s, these fragile images document everyday life, from rural traditions and ceremonial practices to the rapid urbanisation of Bamako.
Captured across the late colonial period, independence, and the rise of socialism, the photographs trace profound social and political change. Alongside studio portraiture, the archives include scenes of military life, official visits, and even the coup that overthrew President Modibo Keïta.
The Sakaly collection, in particular, offers an intimate glimpse into Bamako’s emerging urban society—its elites, schoolchildren, and shifting cultural identity—seen through an unmistakably African lens.
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