Work Description

README FILE FOR "farming and plant gathering (Mali mp4)" videos

Author: Dr. Jeffrey Heath
Contact: jheath@umich.edu
Date Written: 2023-09-07

This work is one of several, each with a general subject matter, in the Deep Blue Data collection "Mali documentary videos from 2023".
https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/data/collections/70795840p?locale=en

The individual videos are in documentary form and are in mp4 (m4v) format. They were produced in 2023 by Jeffrey Heath using footage shot over several preceding years as part of linguistic fieldwork in central Mali (mostly Dogon and Bozo ethnic areas). AVS video editor was used. The videos are lightly subtitled in English. Primary funding by National Science Foundation, Documenting Endangered Languages program. Further credits are at the end of each video. Any additional videos on this topic that may be produced in future years, or copies of these same videos in another video format, will be archived in separate works, possibly in the same collection.

These 2023 videos supplement a body of similar videos from Central Mali archived in 2018 in the Deep Blue Data collection "Central Mali documentary videos".
https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/data/collections/9019s315v?locale=en
That collection includes works on "crafts and grooming", "oils soaps and soda-ash", "hunting and collecting", "herding and dairy", "food and drink preparation", "agriculture", "cultural event". Each work contains several videos in multiple formats.

The videos from Mali may be compared with a similar 2023 collection, "Burkina Faso documentary videos", from footage shot in southwestern Burkina. A much smaller collection "Côte d'Ivoire documentary videos", shot in north central CI, is planned.

INVENTORY OF THE PRESENT WORK

Title: aquatic grass harvest
Format: mp4 (m4v)
Date/Place of footage: Sakarawel near Sévaré, Mali, late rainy season 2021
Duration: 02:56
description: a man wades into waist-deep water, reaps aquatic grass blades with a sickle, and bundles them (for animal fodder)

Title: borassus palm hearts
Format: mp4 (m4v)
Date/Place of footage: Waya village near Taga and Djenné, Mali, January 2021
Duration: 05:20
description: the borassus palm (Borassus aethiopum, Arecaceae) is presented, followed by scenes of harvesting palm hearts from young borassus shoots

Title: Bozo rice harvest and threshing
Format: mp4 (m4v)
Date/Place of footage: Diambacourou, Mali, January 2021
Duration: 06:10
description: several men reap rice stalks with sickles, then thresh the stalks to knock off the grain

Title: bozo water lily harvest and cooking
Format: mp4 (m4v)
Date/Place of footage:
Duration:
description: several men collect edible tubers and fruits of water lilies (Nymphaea maculata, Nymphaeceae); the tubers are taken home and cooked

Title: Cyperus maculatus sedge root for incense
Format: mp4 (m4v)
Date/Place of footage: Macina area, Mali, March 2022
Duration: 02:58
description: young people harvest roots of a sedge (Cyperus maculatus, Cyperaceae) near the river, then bring them home where they are lightly seared, to be used or sold for incense

Title: taro in Mali
Format: mp4 (m4v)
Date/Place of footage: near Djenné, Mali
Duration: 03:31
Description: corms of taro plants (Colocasia esculenta, Araceae) are harvested and cooked

Title: vetiver harvest
Format: mp4 (m4v)
Date/Place of footage: Macina area, Mali, March 2022
Duration: 03:17
Description: aromatic roots of vetiver grass (Chrysopogon nigritanus, Poaceae) are harvested for sale (they are placed at the bottom of waterjars)

LICENSE

These videos are made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please see: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ for more information.