Mali is the country that saw the birth of the art of the puppet. Yaya Coulibaly, one of the greatest living puppeteers, is the heir of a centuries-old tradition and one of the most brilliant representatives of African culture. For more than thirty years he has caricatured African society and watched over more than ten thousand puppets, some of them dating from the sixteenth century.

In Mali, mask and puppet theatre, generally called sogobò, is common to the Bamana, the Malinké and the Bozo, whose history and culture have been closely linked for centuries. This art uses masks and puppets of incredible formal and symbolic richness within multidisciplinary events that combine theatre, masquerade, dance, acrobatics, music and song. A living art in constant evolution, it is a mirror of society, reflecting the identity of those three peoples as they conceive it; its performances are highlights of social life that strengthen peace and cohesion. Poetic by nature, because founded on illusion and suggestion, it is often bound up with social and spiritual practice, a symbolic and effective way of mobilising supernatural forces, and elsewhere a way of confronting the authoritarianism of those in power.