Mali RPCV Todd Vincent Crosby writes about The Culture Bank: A Community-Based Museum Provides Micro-Credit
The Culture Bank: A Community-Based Museum Provides Micro-Credit
By Todd Vincent Crosby and Katrinka Ebbe
Summary and Key Elements
A women's group in Northern Mali has established a community-based museum which protects ceremonial objects, provides micro-credit, generates income, and engages villagers in cultural activities. The museum uses a small fund to make loans of $5 to $40 when villagers deposit their family heirlooms in the museum as collateral. Once the loan is repaid, owners have the choice of reclaiming the object or leaving it in the museum's collection for another loan of increased value. The museum uses the interest earned to finance its operations and to conduct educational and cultural activities in the village.
The Culture Bank has become a way to transform the cultural resources of the community into a lasting economic resource without relying on tourism, illicit sale of artifacts or perpetual outside funding. It has also become a means of cultivating awareness and respect for tradition while making cultural preservation financially sustainable in this isolated, rural community.
* community-based museum
* micro-credit
* tourism·
* handicrafts·
* income generation·
* cultural activities·
* ceremonial art·
* educational activities·
* women's groups·
* illicit sale of artifacts
The Culture Bank
In 1993, while visiting relatives in a nearby village in Northern Mali, Assiata Ongoiba was amazed to see the amount of money that the local women made by organizing an exhibit and selling their crafts to passing tourists. Back at home in the small Dogon village of Fombori, she told her women's group how willingly tourists bought carved statues and masks, beaded gourds, and hand-woven materials. However, in addition, she warned that the foreigners were also very interested in buying traditional ceremonial objects that should stay in the village. Like many others, she saw a danger in selling off the village's traditional objects as souvenirs. Her dream was to establish a museum in Fombori that would attract tourists to see their ceremonial artwork and purchase women's handicrafts.
The women of Fombori were fortunate to have several organizations already at work in their area to help them develop these ideas. Since 1990, the Unitarian Service Committee (USC Canada) had been working with local women's groups through the Gestion Amenagement de Terrior project, supporting women's literacy, savings/credit and income generating programs. Working together, the local Peace Corps volunteer and the USC women's group animator secured a grant of $2,676 from USAID to fund the development of a museum.
At this point, planning meetings were undertaken to enlist the expertise of numerous organizations. Local NGOs, the village elders, the town council, and the district cultural officer, as well as, the Peace Corps and USC contributed their support. In addition, a field trip was made to the National Museum of Bamako where villagers studied different aspects of museum work. Finally, a five room mud and brick museum was built communally by the village men over the course of the next two dry seasons. The townspeople then elected a board of directors to oversee the museum's operation.
Opened in 1996, the museum, at first received a great deal of attention from government officials, national radio and TV reporters and local visitors. However, it soon became clear that there were problems with the concept. There were not enough tourists to generate the income necessary to support the museum and many villagers were reluctant to place their ceremonial objects there. Soon the building was closed unless visitors were expected. Due to this lack of activity, the building was invaded by termites. Only five months after inauguration, the museum objects had to be evacuated, thereby further eroding villagers' confidence.
At the suggestion of the local Peace Corps advisor, the village reevaluated the museum's design and purpose. In collective meetings, it was decided that the museum must become not only financially viable, but also a positive focal point of interest for the community. It was also clear that an incentive was needed to encourage villagers to deposit their possessions in the museum. During the discussions, the concept of the Culture Bank was born when the village decided to establish a program of credit in exchange for the display of ceremonial objects. The village meeting also decided to: improve the museum's infrastructure; and change the museum's tourist orientation to a local one, with activities of interest to the surrounding population.
During the winter and spring of 1997 the villagers renovated the interior of the museum, using termite resistant materials; improved the ventilation system to control humidity and temperature; and cemented the roof to protect against rain. The remainder of the original grant ($390) was earmarked for financing Culture Bank loans. In meetings, the villagers set the lending ground rules and elected a board of directors to manage the cash flow.
Today, individuals can qualify for a loan of $5 to $40 when they bring a family object to the museum as collateral. The amount of the loan depends on the amount of verifiable historical information provided on the object. Upon reimbursement of the loan (4-6 months) the owner has the choice of reclaiming the object or leaving it in the museum's collection for another loan of increased value. The accumulated interest from these loans is to be used to finance the bank/museum operation and conduct an activities program that includes artisan workshops, concerts, theater presentations and traditional festivals, as well as literacy classes and health seminars.
So far, 100 per cent of the loans have been repaid. However, a loan fund of under $400 was insufficient to generate the income necessary for the museum's program of activities. While the Peace Corps is anticipating self-sufficiency in five years, this year the museum/bank received an infusion of $4,000 from the West African Museums Programme (WAMP) for cultural activities. In the meantime, the Peace Corps has developed a manual for Culture Bank development and USC has provided a museum specialist while continuing its other women's support programs. Most importantly, however, six other villages have written proposals requesting development of their own Culture Bank.
Thus, the simple concept of a crafts fair was developed at the local level by the women's group of Fombori into a sophisticated tool for development. The Culture Bank has become a way to transform the cultural resources of the community into a lasting economic resource without relying on tourism, illicit sale of artifacts or perpetual outside funding. It has also become a means of cultivating awareness and respect for tradition and making cultural preservation financially sustainable in this isolated, rural community.
References:
* Crosby, Todd Vincent. 1997. The Culture Bank: Saving Mali's Cultural Heritage. United States Peace Corps, Mali.
* Huston, Perdita. 1997. Culture Bank Turns Mali Village's Art Into an Asset. International Herald Tribune, August 27, 1997.
