THE DJENNÉ INITIATIVE Volunteer Staff Jean-Louis Bourgeois, The Djenné Initiative President, is a human rights and environmental activist. He wrote a detailed history of the mosque of Djenné, in Spectacular Venacular: The Adobe Tradition, which he co-authored with his late wife, photographer Carollee Pelos. The late Bakary Soumano, Mali's National Bard (Chef des Griots), identifying the struggle against the Talo Dam as an epic in Malian history, declared Bourgeois the first white African epic hero. Jerry Maronek, The Djenné Initiative Executive Director, is an architectural historian and a cultural and historic resource preservationist who lives in Djenné, He was given the name Bakaina Himadou Toure by the Imam of Djenné. Richard Roepnack, filmmaker. Volunteers in Mali: Tiecoura Bocoum, agronomy and ecology; Hassey Cissé, Bozo dialects and culture; Sekou Toure, Songhay dialects and culture; Hamadoun Cissé, Djenné history and culture; Ali Djiré, Bamana language and culture; Modibo Sekou Cissé, Malian law and customs. In addition, Hassey Cissé and Bilaly Boucum serve as field staff in Djenné as does Lee Elliot in New York City. Copyright 2004 © The Djenné Initiative, Inc.