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This introductory chapter first sets out the book's purpose, namely to analyze changes in Malian politics during the last two decades. It suggests that a detailed study of cultural heritage and its transformations is key to understanding the 2012 impasse of the Malian democratic experiment and, more generally, to understanding critical aspects of modern power in postcolonial Mali. A key focus of this work is to understand how democracy and neoliberalism have affected state practices, particularly as seen through the prism of the heritage field. The remainder of chapter discusses governmentality and cultural heritage, heritage and public culture, social memory and the anthropology of Africa, heritage and memory, and cultural heritage during Mali's one-party state era. These are followed by a description of the methodology used in the study and an overview of the subsequent chapters.

This chapter examines the state memorialization of the colonial past via narratives, practices, and visual culture. First, it briefly describes some of the ways in which French colonization was represented during the period of the one-party state (1960–1991), using them as a benchmark against which to gauge changes in those representations by the democratic and neoliberal state that followed. Second, it examines the state memorialization of French colonization since 1991, focusing on the Koulouba monument complex in Bamako, the largest series of monuments dedicated to Mali's colonial history. It details the emergence of a new narrative of colonization that suggests contacts, hybridity, and cross-feeding—a representation reflecting some of the experiences and narratives of Mali's cosmopolitan political and cultural elites. Third, it analyze Ségouvian citizens' perspectives on the government's memorialization project in light of their experience with state encroachment on their city's patrimony. This final section centers on the confrontation between the state and peripheral urban communities over the management of the colonial heritage and explores some of its political and cultural implications, including the embryonic development of a few private heritage initiatives in Ségou.

This chapter discusses the challenges encountered by state and quasi-state organizations in transforming some of the Djenné-based sacred sites into public heritage sites. It analyzes the centrality of Sudanese architecture in colonial and postcolonial representations of Mali, including the construction of models of the Great Mosque of Djenné in the context of worldwide expositions featuring Mali's artistic and artisanal products. It highlights some of the additional challenges (and possibilities) opened up by the inscription of the towns of Djenné on the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list and Djennenkés' critical perspectives on the criteria and objectives overseeing the management of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Through an analysis grounded in a postcolonial revision of Bennett's exhibitionary complex, the chapter also addresses state and quasi-state attempts to diversify the selection of the cultural patrimony to be restored. It examines the reinvention of the youth house of the Saho, which is being reconceived in bureaucratic reports and the media as an example of Mal's secular patrimony. Such transformations in state narratives of the Saho represent an effort to mitigate opposition by religious leaders—whose perspectives are shaped not merely by religious concerns but also by an array of other considerations (including economic and political ones).

This chapter analyzes one of the first private initiatives in the field of heritage in the post-1992 period, the development of the women's museum Muso Kunda in Korofinna, Bamako. Conceived and realized by Adame Ba Konaré, wife of the then-president and herself a distinguished historian, the museum reflects efforts by the democratic leadership to give women more visibility, to stress their historical and social contributions, and to promote greater women's participation in every sector, including the economic and political fields. The museum was closed for renovations in 2011 and remains closed as of late 2015. The chapter also considers the visitor's experience of the museum by analyzing museum tours undertaken by two of the museum's main target audiences (foreign tourists and Malian youth) and highlighting some of the unexpected interactions and conversations around issues of gender that developed between visitors and museum representatives.