Dicko Ka Kuma

Intro

On August 21, 2020, in the midst of a major political crisis in Mali, Imam Mahmoud Dicko addressed a massive crowd in Bamako.

The excerpt of the speech you're about to watch was delivered just days after a military coup ousted President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta (IBK), following months of mass protests led by the June 5 Movement – Rally of Patriotic Forces (M5-RFP), a broad opposition coalition in which Dicko played a leading role.

The video is drawn from a full-length, 45-minute recording published by the Malivox YouTube channel. The clip featured here captures the opening segment, which lasts just under nine minutes and offers a vivid glimpse of Dicko’s rhetorical style and political message during this pivotal moment.

Mahmoud Dicko, often referred to in Mali as a "Wahhabi" imam due to his Salafi orientation, is one of the country’s most influential religious leaders. From 2008 to 2019, he served as president of the High Islamic Council of Mali, where he also acted as a mediator between the state and Islamist groups in the north. Initially a supporter of President Keïta, Dicko became a prominent critic by 2017, voicing concern over corruption, poor governance, and the role of secularism in public life.

In 2019, he founded the Coordination des Mouvements, Associations et Sympathisants (CMAS), which became a driving force within the M5-RFP. The movement mobilized widespread discontent that culminated in the August 18, 2020 military coup. Though Dicko did not seek political office, his influence shaped public discourse during the transition period.

After the coup, Dicko announced he was stepping back from politics, but he remained an outspoken critic of the military-led transitional government. In March 2024, CMAS was dissolved by the junta along with other political movements. By late 2024, Dicko had reportedly gone into exile in Algeria—underscoring his ongoing symbolic importance at the intersection of religion and politics in Mali.

This transcription and translation draw on a 2020 academic article by Artem Davydov, which includes a full transcription and English translation of the speech, along with a detailed linguistic analysis. I have used Davydov’s transcription as a reference but updated it to better align with standardized Bambara orthography. I’ve also revised several of his interpretations. The translation here is my own, though in some places it remains close to his original.

Watch

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Watch and Read

Now turn on the subtitles in Bambara/Jula (click on the little "CC" button) and read along.

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List of Selected Grammar Points

Coming later

Grammar Points Explained

Coming later