In 2015, Aboubakar Fofana started the IBIKASO indigo & farming project involving the local community in the district of Siby in southern Mali, just 60km outside of Mali’s bustling capital Bamako. IBIKASO means “Welcome Home” in Bamanankan, reflecting the philosophy of community and sharing.
Although the area used to be covered with large trees, most were felled for charcoal and the land was severely damaged, showing signs of desertification. The ambition of his project is to heal the land, replant trees and demonstrate a complex, entirely organically farmed, agricultural ecosystem, in which all the plants and cycles they undergo support the structure and the short-term goals of feeding local people, the medium-term goal of indigo production and dyeing, and the long-term goal of assisting to maintain biodiversity and preserving the agricultural and cultural heritage of this part of Mali.
