Art, gender and conflict 艺术、性别和冲突

　　The puppet-mistress of Mali 马里的木偶女王

　　The struggles of the only female practitioner of a venerable art form 古老艺术形式唯一女性传承者的奋斗史

　　Each Morning Maoua Koné wakes beneath the black-eyed gaze of masks and marionettes on the walls of her cramped one-room flat in Bamako. 每天早晨， Maoua Koné都在巴马科狭小的人单人公寓墙上的面具和牵线木偶的黑眼睛的注视下醒来。

　　When Ms Koné, Mali’s only female marionettist, manipulates the shiny forms, her male counterparts tremble. Koné是唯一的女性木偶表演艺术家，当她操纵闪亮的小玩意儿，男性表演家都为之震颤。

　　“The men are scared of me because they think I have a lot of magical powers,” she says. “男性都惧怕我因为他们认为我有魔力，”她说。

　　“They think it is not possible for a woman to be a marionettist.” “他们认为女性不可能成为木偶演奏家。”

　　Her career has overcome chauvinism, only to be stifled by another stubborn obstacle: violent conflict. 她的事业克服了大男子主义，最终却被另一顽固障碍压制：暴力冲突。

　　Mali’s marionette theatre originated centuries ago in the villages of Bozo fishermen and Bambara hunters in southern and central regions. 马里的木偶戏剧院起源于几个世纪前中、南部地区博佐渔民和班巴拉猎人的村庄。

　　The custom co-existed with Islam, the main religion, which has historically forbidden figurative representation of human beings. 这一习俗与主要宗教伊斯兰教共存，而伊斯兰教禁止用比喻形象代表人类。

　　Performances explore communities’ histories, tell morality tales and limn the roles of men and women. 木偶戏表演探索社区历史、讲述道德故事，并限定男女角色。

　　They celebrate the coming of the rains and of the harvest. 主要为庆祝雨季和收获的到来。

　　Masks and puppets stand in for people and animals, but also character traits, spirits and ancestors. 面具和木偶代表着人和动物，也代表着人物特征、幽灵和祖先。

　　The country’s rich cultural life has always been segregated by gender. 马里丰富的文化生活总是被性别隔离开来。

　　In the renowned music scene, for example, women rarely play the djembe, a kind of drum, or the kora, a lute-like instrument. 例如，在著名的音乐界，女性很少演奏金贝鼓（非洲手鼓）或科拉琴（类似琵琶的乐器）。

　　Women have traditionally been forbidden from operating marionettes, or even making them, a craft that entails complex rituals, conducted under cover of night and involving kola nuts and roosters. 传统上，女性不允许操作木偶，甚至制作也不被允许，制作包含复杂的工艺，要在夜幕的掩护下，原料涉及可乐果和公鸡。

　　In these ceremonies, says Broulaye Camara, a fellow marionettist, male initiates determine whether a puppet’s spirit will be benevolent. 在这些仪式上，木偶表演家布劳莱卡马拉说，男性制作人会决定木偶的灵魂是否仁慈。

　　Women are barred, Mr Camara maintains, because they have not been initiated, and because they are gossips. 卡马拉先生坚持认为，女性被禁止是因为他们还没有基本的知识，还因为她们爱说长道短。

　　“Women talk too much,” he says. “They don’t keep secrets.” “女性话太多，”他说。“他们不能保守秘密。”