Boukary Konaté is a translator for Global Voices in French and also a Rising Voices grantee representing the Ségou Villages Connection.

This year he has another feather on the cap. Boukary has been listed among the finalists in the Best of Blogs the BOBs, an annual event held by the Deutsche Welle Media Group to award blog and bloggers who have in a way or another marked their societies, communities and contributed to promoting freedom of expression.

Boukary is competing under the category “Education and Culture” for his own blog Fasokan in both French and Bambara languages.

Fasokan in Mali promotes local languages and cultures on his bilingual, personal blog. He introduced village people to the Internet and basic search on the Web during an educational cruise on river Niger in Mali.

Boukary Konaté with Global Voices business card. Image by workshop.segou

On the Intro of his blog, Boukary writes:

La langue ne se développe pas elle-même, ce sont ses locuteurs qui la travaille. Le peu que je peux faire pour le développement et la promotion des langues africaines, je le fais pour que nos langues traversent les rivières et les fleuves et prennent place parmi les autres langues dans le vestibule de partage d’information et de savoir, qui est Internet. Fasokan, Site en langues nationale Bambara, Mali

You can encourage Boukary by voting for his blog. The voting has started and continues till May 1st.

All you have to do is go the BoB's website,  choose the “Education and Culture” category, select Fasokan as a site and then vote.

All the winners will be announced on the BOBs’ website on May 2.

Print Screen from the BoB's website

Boukary, who also tweets under the same name of Fasokan, writes: