This publication is the result of a research project led by artists Raphaël
Grisey and Bouba Touré around the archives
of the self-organized agricultural cooperative Somankidi Coura, in Mali. A
historical reflection on agricultural, archival, health, and migratory
issues through a decolonial
perspective.
Sowing Somankidi Coura. A Generative Archive is a long-term
research endeavor by Raphaël Grisey in collaboration with Bouba Touré around
the permacultures and archives of Somankidi Coura, a self-organized
cooperative along the Senegal river founded by a group of former African
migrant workers and activists in France in 1977 after the Sahel drought of
1973. The book assembles texts, voices, images, takes, retakes and research
around the Pan-African history of the cooperative of Somankidi Coura, the
liberation struggles of migrant workers and farmers in France and West
Africa. It enables thinking a politics of decolonisation for agriculture,
migration, care, soil and the archive. Sowing Somankidi Coura. A
Generative Archive offers new perspectives on the analyses and modes
of action of ACTAF (Cultural Association of African Workers in France), and
the permacultures of the Cooperative of Somankidi Coura, for speculative
permacultures to germinate. Sowing Somankidi Coura presents a
series of interviews with Bakhoré Bathily, Goundo Kamissokho Niakhaté, Mady
Koïta Niakhaté, Ladji Niangané, Ousmane Sinaré, Siré Soumaré and Bouba
Touré, the cooperative's founders, a large selection of Bouba Touré's photo
archive, and various contributions from Raphaël Grisey, Tobias Hering,
Olivier Marboeuf, Aïssatou Mbodj-Pouye & Jean-Philippe Dedieu, Karinne
Parrot, Romain Tiquet, Kaddù Yaraax and Sidney Sokhona.
Raphaël Grisey (born 1979 in Paris, lives and works in Berlin and Trondheim, Norway) His exclusively video, editorial and photographic works gathers or produces narratives on politics of memories, migration or architecture since many years. The photographic series and book Wo versteckt sich Rosa L. (2001-2006), for example, was the study of the traces or ghosts of various political regimes in Berliner public spaces. His films or installations, using diverse documentary, fictional or essayist forms deal also with social and political issues of the day such as immigration and post-colonial issues in France (Trappes, Ville Nouvelle, 2003; Cooperative, 2008–). Recent films lead him to work in Budapest (National motives, 2011), in french students' strikes situations (The Indians, 2011), in China (The exchange of perspectives, 2012), in Brazil around the social housing complex Pedregulho (Minhocão, 2011) and in the Brazilian Positivist Church in Rio de Janeiro (Amor e Progresso, 2014) or around maroon quilombola communities in Minas Gerais (Remanescentes / A Mina dos Vagalumes, 2015). His work includes also collaboration projects such as the films Prvi Deo and Red Star (2006) dealing with post war issues in ex-Yougoslavia with Florence Lazar and such as the project Cooperative (2008-) with Bouba Touré.
