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Djonya Kélé Ja Toulon

The Djonya Kélé Ja Toulon (Gamers against slavery in Mali) project is funded by the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) University of London and is in collaboration with two other Malian organisations – Donkosira and Kasart Media – next to our own V4T Academy Mali, and expert scholars. The one-year project focuses on ‘inherited slavery’ which in some areas of Mali is still a practice, although it’s a taboo and a difficult subject. The project aims to create a better understanding of the situation in the Kayes and Macina regions of Mali, especially from the point of view of young people. It does so by two extensive periods of field research by young people from the area in multiple villages in Kayes and Macina, after which the results of this research are used to create a theatre piece, as well as a mobile video game that can help open up the conversation on this taboo subject.

The young people from Kayes and Macina are trained by and work for the Voice4Thought Academy in the regions Ségou and Macina, or are trained by V4T Academy experts in qualitative research methods, archiving and the V4TA expert in artistic expressions. The first workshop was held in February 2021 in Bamako. The mobile game ‘Usawa’ was presented in September 2023 and will be available for download from the Play Store in Bambara, French, Swahili and English, after its launch at SOAS.