 Welcome to Mali Pavilion in Expo 2020, the biggest event in the world with 122 countries coming here for connecting minds and build to the future. We are here in the Mali Pavilion and the Mali Pavilion welcomes you with women and with beautiful sunrise made by our photographer Amjad Traoré and this other photographer Kumi. So welcome where the sun is warm and the smiles warmer, a people, a land, a culture where people have harms why it happen when you are never a guest, you are a family and your host, your Jatigi is an entire country. Welcome to Mali, welcome home, please enter. So how many smiles do you have in Mali, how many people? You have 20 million people with smiles, 20 million people welcoming you with smiles. So like for example tourists are welcome? Tourists are family, we are in the pavilion of hospitality. So in Mali we consider people like family, visitors are never tourists are never tourists are never visitors, they are always family. That is why it's a pavilion of hospitality a meeting place. What do you show here? Here we start the story of Mali with the river of gold and this is the river of gold with these fishes, these fishes are the copy of the puppets made by Bozo. So who's a Bozo? Bozo are the master of water. But we have a wall of the masters of water but before coming in this wall we start the story by the story of Mansa Musa because Mali pavilion is about connection and we wanted to start this connection with the Middle East and we wanted to start with the connection of this man the story of this man well known the biggest the richest man in the world but Mansa Musa is well known for his generosity. When is Mansa Musa? That was a long time ago. It was a long time ago it was the 10th emperor of the Mali empire and had a reputation that preceded him all the way to Europe and Middle East. So this is the map? This is the map of the river of gold and in Mali when you are talking about history about culture we always talking about opportunities. So between the story of Mansa Musa and the story of the empire of Mali we have the trade of gold because Mali is the third producer of gold and gold is very important in Mali. The whole world runs on gold right? Mali needs gold in every country so there's customers everywhere. Well in this pavilion you will find another gold. A lot of gold. You will find another gold. The river is in gold it's Sambo. The trade of gold it's about opportunities but you will find another gold. Gold is not only about mining. Gold is also about behavior, about values. That's what you are going to discover in this country, in this pavilion. So this is the map of the river of gold with famous cities, Segu, Bamako, Mopti, Nafunke, Markala, Jene. And you are going to discover all these cities along the journey. First of all we start by Gau. Gau is along the river. The gold river, the river of gold is the Niger river. We have two rivers in Mali, the Niger river and the river of Senegal. And along the Niger river we have the city of Gau, the famous city of Gau and this young man Ibrahim Mayga is welcoming you, welcome to Gau, the city of Asya, the emperor of Songhai. And he introduces you on the wall of the masters of the water with mystical tradition, the culture of Niger river. We have here the Moptikan's race and here we have intangible heritage. We wanted to showcase also the connection in Africa. This is the original master of water named Bafaro. But in Bene, for example, and in other countries in Africa, they name her Mamiwata. So we are always talking about connection with the Middle East, with Africa here and also with Africa here. And as I said, when we talk about culture, we always talk about opportunities in hydro energy and aquaculture. So how much is going on with the hydro energy in Mali? Along this river, the hydro energy is very important because we use for to feed and it provides electricity. So a lot of electricity. A lot of electricity come from hydro energy in Mali. There's also a lot of sun, right? So you could be cultivating that. How much solar power do you have going on? Well, I can tell how much, but I can tell you that by now they are working on providing many energy, many electricity with solar and we'll discover that on the new projects and the wall of Bamako. But here I wanted also to showcase series discovered by Duggan. And this is the corner of children with the story of the legend of Mali Sajo and the myth of Tapamajenepo. So we continue the journey along the river of gold and we arrive in Seigu. We come to Seigu, the land of Shebertur and 4,444 Balazan trees, of which even the locals do not know the signifiant and the potteries, yes, very important in the city of Seigu, and made. And the idea of and made in the pavilion is very important. Artists, artistry, artisana, right? Artisana, artist, all the picture you see here, all the photograph you see, all the photo you see is here, have been made by Malian photographer. All the photo have been made by Malian photographer. This is for example, a photo from the artist Kis, the Bafaro, the original master of water by the photograph Jawara, Mofti by the photograph Jawara, and this also. So all the photographer of Mali helped to build this pavilion. And now we come on the wall of the people of office Tunisier because we have 1,200,000 kilometers of land and as country's large producer, this Mali provide all the West African countries in Uxden. So it's a very big opportunity there and as I said, when I talk about opportunities in Mali, always talk about culture. And this culture is the festival known as Yeraldegal, a fulani festival that meaning the crossing of the Uxden. It takes place in Jaffarabe and celebrates the crossing of thousands of cattle and the nomadic people of Mali with contents of poetry, music and dances. Another festival along the river festival sur le Niger, the Chihwara, well known in the famous museums, has a sample of braver and you will see always this sample in all the pavilions. It's the emblem of Mali pavilions, it's the belt of braver and we arrive here in the agriculture area because it's a land of agriculture and we are the third producer of cotton. And this is a big opportunity in Mali but it's not only about to be the third producer of cotton. We wanted to explain the deep meaning of cotton in Mali. This wall explains three things. This wall about knowledge, the science and symbol made by Foudemousa Sidibe, made by Foudemousa Sidibe and it's a sample of Mali culture, cultural identity. For Golanfini is an handmade cotton, traditional dyed with fermented mood and this sign are like alphabet. Going back to the source, the naval of the world, the human person, the path of life is never straight, union, the path of uncultivated knowledge, the belt of the braver and power and strength. And it's to initiate young people and the cotton, we have the waving here. The meaning of the waving in Mali means to wave the universe, the sound of the waving is the sound of universe. So we have knowledge in the cotton and we were knowledge. In many countries, in many areas, knowledge and alphabet and science are in paper. But in Mali and in this area, we were knowledge. We were knowledge and we were also knowledge for our health because dyed fermented mood is very important for knowledge, for health. So you can see what you can do with cotton. We can see the future of cotton. And here, this man whose name is Chris Seydoux, a famous designer in Mali, bring the tradition to design. And his model, Maria Bocoum, continues this work and we have now this piece of design and it's very important in cultural industry, all what we can make with cotton and this industry. And we arrived in Bamako, welcome to Bamako, it's the city, the capital of Mali with these young ladies. And you will see there all the new projects, Robo-Mali, Impact Hub in Mali, Proje Yelenkura. But it's just some project. So what's going on with the robots and is the students doing all this kind of projects? It's startup, Impact Hub for example supports entrepreneurs, especially young and women, Frug Specialized Training, Incubation and Acceleration Program, that's Impact Hub. Robo-Mali is on a mission to teach robotics and artificial intelligence in all of Mali school and college and this project, Yelenkura, has been created by Robo-Mali in collaboration with the Union of Blind. So what do you do in terms of using technology to bring the Mali forward, a lot of things? A lot of things, but the most important things is to preserve knowledge coming from the past. For example, we enter here in the heart, the soul and the spirit of Mali Parvelian. And we have here the manuscript, the digitized manuscript of Tambak Tu. Technology helps us to preserve this manuscript. It's about science, medicine, poetry, astronomy, astrology. So we try to bring here and it's a word, it's of technology. Technology helps us to preserve this knowledge and this knowledge helps young people to create new projects. What are these? You digitized them? All these are, you saw that we have many ideograms, symbols and signs and in Mali we have also the Tifinac alphabet and in Mali in this area we also write in Arabic. So it was just to showcase all the, how can I say, all the signs in Mali, all the alphabets in Mali, to showcase this diversity. So this is the great mosque? Yes, the great mosque of Cheney. And what other things can you talk about in terms of technology use? Do you show some more? Yes, we have here the Linali project, I don't know if it's work. We have the Linali project. It's a massive boost to social inclusivity and the Linali app, it's the world's first voice-based social media network. It allows those without formal education to access a digital landscape and connects Mali's entrepreneurs with a wider consumer base. And in here we are trying to showcase all the signs, ideograms in a technology way. Everybody in Mali has a good internet connection or are there some places that need to get better satellite link-ups in the future and stuff like that? Of course, because it's a very big country so some area need that, of course. Maybe you know this Starlink Elon Musk project could cover the whole area and bring some dishes and everybody can get fast internet. Because right now there's cables going in and 4G, 5G, something like that, in the cities, right? Yes, but we have to figure out about that. What is Mali people use internet in all the area? You know with what? With smartphones. Also with smartphones, even in some areas when they don't have landline phones, they have smartphones. And they can do many things with that. Like a currency also, payments, currency of the smartphones. Exactly, we do many things with smartphones. More than in Europe for example, they use it in many ways. Let's continue the tour. Yes, and here we have our traditional string music instrument. A gift from genius to humans to galvanize, educate and inspire them. The instrument we hear playing there? Exactly, because when you enter in Mali pavillion you can hear this instrument. So you wanted to show the real instrument here. And this instrument is like, sorry, is like Stradivarius. It costs like 150 million dollars then. I'm joking. It's not about cost, but I understand what you're meaning. It's not about cost, it's about the meaning and it's about beauty. And it's about how it's very hard to learn to play this instrument. It can take 15 years, so it's very, very hard to play it. And here we have the art and beats of Mali Streets, the designer. And this seat has been designed by Shek Djalo, our famous designer, Sièche Banane. An art gallery, the Biennale de la Photographie in Mali each two years. To showcase that also in Mali by night we have an interesting life, artistic life. And photography is very important in our country. Our Meite, Al Fadi. And here we arrived at the end of the exhibition, at the end of the journey. This is an artwork made by Abdelay Konate. And it summarizes the pavilion, the soul, the heart and the spirit of the pavilion with Monsamosa. Monsamosa you saw with his vision. The white gold, the gold, the black gold, diversity in culture and architecture and blue like the river. And all these colors are very important in Mali. So this piece of art is here to summarize the pavilion. And the vision of Monsamosa, you go with the vision of Monsamosa. We arrived here, the treasure of Mali. And the treasure is for sale? It's for sale, it's the shop and they have been made by the association Timidwa, 250% and Craft Unique. And in the corner here, bag? Yes. Two bags and this one is for the camel. They use it for long rides. All right. Cool, so thanks a lot, that's great. So how is it going, the Expo 2020? A lot of people walking by? Yesterday we received in the Mali pavilion more than 5,000 visitors. That was incredible. All right. So we hope that it will be better. Yeah, everybody is welcome, it's open in the next four months. Yes. So how is it going to Dubai from Mali, direct flights? Well, Malian live everywhere. So we have not a direct flight to Dubai, but we have many Malian people who come to Dubai because it's like a hub for them. So they live everywhere and all Malian people come to Dubai with this exhibition. Direct flights from Europe to Mali? Yes, from France, for example. But some direct flights also from Africa, from Ethiopia, for example, from Senegal, I think. So we have some direct flights. Yeah, there's a lot of connection with the Ethiopian Airlines. Yes. People can come from everywhere. Turkish Airlines, no? Turkish Airlines and Emirates. Emirates also. Emirates. So direct Dubai? With France? Yes, through Paris. Yes, through Paris. Cool.