Graduate Student

Anthropology Department

Rice University

INTERESTS

West African archaeology, especially the age of Empires (Ghana, Mali, and Songhai) and transition from stone to iron technology.  Because the archaeological heritage of Mali is threatened by looting, additional interests include strategies to protect, preserve and promote archaeological heritage.

Since 1996, he has participated in archaeological projects in Jenne (Jenne-jeno site, Jenne Museum site), Gao (site of the Kanku Musa’s mosque, Gao Saneye, survey in Gao and its surroundings) and Mema (Akumbu, Kolima Sud Est and Beretuma sites), all located in Mali.  His dissertation work will focus on rescue work conducted at the site known as  "Kanku Musa’s mosque",  located in the heart of the modern town of Gao. The aim of his work is better understand the development of Gao, which was the capital city of Songhai Empire (15^th -16^th centuries AD) and a major trans-Saharan trade.  This work builds on earlier work by Tim Insoll.  Before coming to Rice, he was Chief of the Division of Sites, Monuments and Traditional Architecture in the National Direction of Cultural Patrimony (Ministry of Culture) of Mali.

Publications:

- Reconnaissance Archéologique a Gao (Mali) et Environs in « Studies in the African Past 4 » (2004 with T. Togola and Y. Fane).

- Reconnaissance Archéologique a Gao (Mali) et Environs in Nyame Akuma, No. 62 (2004 with T. Togola and Y. Fane).

- Domestication des Céréales au Mema, Mali in the Acts of 11th Congress of Pan African Association of Prehistory and Related Studies (2004 with S. Takezawa).

- Mema in the History of West Africa: Economics Bases of Ancient Ghana and Mali in Journal of African Studies. ( 2005 with C. Takezawa and H. Oda ). 

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