ABSTRACT
The Numusala Quartier was where I first lived when I moved to Dissan, Mali as a Peace Corps volunteer. Village elders assigned me to Numusala, not because I am a blacksmith, but because I was a stranger. Historically Mande blacksmiths—besides having specialized knowledge and skills critical to local food production and tool making—served as interpreters and liaisons between their communities and outsiders. As an unknown, untested stranger, the community placed me next door to the blacksmith's workshop on the edge of the village. It wasn't until years later that, as a rite of passage and acceptance, the elders moved me out of Numusala and into the village center, Dugutigila.
