This publication is the result of a research project led by artists Raphaël Grisey and Bouba Touré around the archives of the self-organized agricultural cooperative Somankidi Coura, in Mali. A historical reflection on agricultural, archival, health, and migratory issues through a decolonial perspective.
Sowing Somankidi Coura. A Generative Archive is a long-term research endeavor by Raphaël Grisey in collaboration with Bouba Touré around the permacultures and archives of Somankidi Coura, a self-organized cooperative along the Senegal river founded by a group of former African migrant workers and activists in France in 1977 after the Sahel drought of 1973. The book assembles texts, voices, images, takes, retakes and research around the Pan-African history of the cooperative of Somankidi Coura, the liberation struggles of migrant workers and farmers in France and West Africa. It enables thinking a politics of decolonisation for agriculture, migration, care, soil and the archive. Sowing Somankidi Coura. A Generative Archive offers new perspectives on the analyses and modes of action of ACTAF (Cultural Association of African Workers in France), and the permacultures of the Cooperative of Somankidi Coura, for speculative permacultures to germinate. Sowing Somankidi Coura presents a series of interviews with Bakhoré Bathily, Goundo Kamissokho Niakhaté, Mady Koïta Niakhaté, Ladji Niangané, Ousmane Sinaré, Siré Soumaré and Bouba Touré, the cooperative's founders, a large selection of Bouba Touré's photo archive, and various contributions from Raphaël Grisey, Tobias Hering, Olivier Marboeuf, Aïssatou Mbodj-Pouye & Jean-Philippe Dedieu, Karinne Parrot, Romain Tiquet, Kaddù Yaraax and Sidney Sokhona.