The Timbuktu Renaissance Initiative Reception

The Brookings Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World and the Africa Growth Initiative are pleased to invite you to hear featured remarks on the Timbuktu Renaissance Initiative from the Malian minister of culture, the U.S. ambassador to Mali and the vice president and director of foreign policy at Brookings. Remarks will be followed by a live performance by world-renowned Malian musicians. Malian music is considered by many musicians as the root of blues music in the United States and has won admirers around the globe. This event follows the 2014 U.S.–Islamic World Forum in Doha, which launched the Timbuktu Renaissance Action Group, and falls during the U.S.–Africa Leaders Summit. This reception will directly follow AGI’s program, The Game Has Changed: The New Landscape for Business and Innovation in Africa, available via webcast.

The Timbuktu Renaissance Initiative seeks to leverage the power of Mali’s extraordinary heritage and living culture to foster peace, reconciliation and economic development. The mission also aligns directly with the priorities of the Government of Mali to promote peace and reconciliation and with the vision of H.E. Mrs. N’Diaye Ramatoulaye Diallo, Mali’s minister of culture, to put “culture at the heart of socioeconomic development.” For this reason, the Government of Mali embraced the Timbuktu Renaissance as a partner during the 2014 U.S.-Islamic World Forum in Doha this past June. At the Forum, H.E. President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita of Mali delivered a keynote address, and, along with Mali’s ministers of culture, foreign affairs, investment promotion and industry and religious affairs, participated in several of the Timbuktu Renaissance Action Group’s meetings.

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