Aminata Traoré (author)

"Mali doesn’t have a national action plan for Albinism, but with our organization AMPA, we have developed a strategic plan for the association. We developed a policy that we would like to propose to the government, a national policy that takes into account the specific needs of people with albinism. We have done this, but now we would like to review it with the other organizations so that it can include recommendations from other organizations."

"My dream for women with albinism around the world is really that they can have access to healthy and quality education. Because what I encounter on a daily basis is deplorable."

"I know, from my experience in Africa, France and elsewhere, that this anger is the painful and perhaps violent expression of a feeling of humiliation after all that has happened to us, of seeing our tragedies and our deaths treated differently. It also represents the humiliation felt after Nicolas Sarkozys speech in Dakar. Fixating on an anti-French sentiment created and maintained by Russian propaganda is yet another way of telling us that we are incapable of thinking for ourselves and of revolting."

"First of all, I am a product of the left. When I entered the girls high school, the first Republic of Mali had just been born. Like many young people, I was one of the "pioneers" under the regime of Modibo Keïta [socialist president of the country from 1960 to 1968]. Our slogan was "Pioneer today, pioneer always." In history class, we were told about the liberation struggles and more specifically about the role played by Mali and its president in the creation of the Organization of African Unity. I have been imbued with this pan-African spirit since childhood."

"In the 1960s, we wanted to break out of [foreign] domination and a model based on exporting only a few raw materials, without ever using them locally — so as to create jobs and transform our agriculture and our own production of food needs. To this day our economy consists of producing for international demand and the needs of others. Mass unemployment, mass poverty, emigration and what is called jihadism are directly related to these economic issues."

"Yes, because France has not won this war. It has gone but we have not yet won. However, there is less humiliation. In Mali, a whole generation of soldiers has experienced what this war means. Young people have been thrown into the field, without autonomy of thought or analysis of the situation. When the Malians said: "Let us try to talk to Iyad and Koufa," France replied: "No way! And people were, and still are, dropping like flies. It is all this that led us to stand up to Macrons diktat."