Abdoulaye Bah, from Mopti to Bamako
A guide in Mopti at thirteen, a student in Lagos at eighteen: the museum’s founder has spent more than thirty years studying and gathering works from across the continent.
It all begins in Mopti. Abdoulaye Bah is thirteen when he guides his first visitors through this town of trade and exchange. There he meets travelers, artisans and art dealers, and discovers objects he will never stop studying.
At eighteen, he leaves for Lagos, Nigeria, to study art history and English, while still guiding visitors. For more than thirty years he travels, learns from mentors and custodians of tradition, and gathers works from across the continent.
From a collection to an institution
Tribal and Ethnic Art Center BKO grew out of this collection. Its founder wanted these works to have a lasting home in Bamako, where they are conserved, documented, studied and shown, while recognizing the knowledge and rights of the communities they come from.
His work promoting African art and culture has been recognized with the Delali Award of Leadership.
