The thunder of djembe drums and children songs from Africa echoed in the Jeremy Ranch Elementary School’s multipurpose room Friday morning.
The celebration kicked off the “Faces of Mali” photo exhibit that will hang at the school through May 20.
The photos, which examine the themes of women in village life, schools and education and ethnic groups living in Mali, are part of the Utah Arts Council’s traveling exhibits program, which takes exhibits to museums, community centers, schools and universities around the state.
While the exhibit isn’t open to the public, Yeah Samake, mayor of Ouelessebougou, a small town in Mali, stressed the importance of displaying the photos from the West African nation in schools.
“Faces of Mali” introduces the culture and daily life of his country, he said.
“The exhibit is beneficial for Utah, especially the school students, because it will expand their horizons,” Samake said during an interview with The Park Record. “They will come to better understand how other people in other places live what food they eat, what games the children play and what kind of leadership is provided in rural areas.”
However, the benefits aren’t just running on a one-way street, he said.
“On the reverse side, Mali also gets its faces around the world,” said Samake, who is also the founder of the Mali Rising Foundation, a Utah-based nonprofit organization that works with Malian villages and the central government to build cost-efficient and environmentally friendly schools and increase education in Mali. “It brings these two cultures together, and it can entice the children and families from Utah to travel to Mali and bring their culture to Mali.
“An exhibit like this makes the world smaller,” he said. “There’s that interconnection and people can know each other in a more intimate way.”
Photographer Edgar Gomez-Palmieri said the idea for the exhibit hatched during a conversation he and Samake had three years ago.
Gomez-Palmieri, who gathers DNA for the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation, had taken pictures of people who were subjects for DNA samples.
“I noticed when we interviewed people in the villages, there was a lot of positive energy,” he said. “People were happy and all of the pictures I took reflected that. I talked with Yeah and we came up with the idea of creating a photo exhibit that reflected the energy for the people in Utah to see.”
Still, seeing the photos only told part of the story, Samake and Gomez-Palmieri said.
“Through these pictures, the students can see things, but I can convey more vocally what the pictures are about,” said Samake, a public policy graduate of Brigham Young University who recently announced his plans to run for president of Mali. “So I give a presentation at each of the exhibit’s openings. That way, people can interact with someone from the culture, which can bring more understanding and life to the whole exhibit.”
“The exhibit does help the students see what it’s like to go to school in Mali as opposed to going to school here in Utah, but, like Yeah, I think the photographs do only part of the job, but an important aspect is missing,” Gomez-Palmieri said. “That’s why we bring the musicians and have activities for the kids to see and hear.”
The Hardwood African Project, co-founded by Andy and Kayla Jones, which seeks to redress the causes of poverty in West Africa, provides the djembes and music for the assemblies and presentations, Gomez-Palmieri said. The programs feature kids participating in assembly drumming and singing West African songs.
“We have also created another activity where the students can look at a photograph of a man who sells masks,” he said. “We created a program where the kids can draw the masks. They can learn about what animal these masks represent and what their use is.”