Interview with Harry Tappan Heher, February 9, 2022

Interview Summary

Harry Tappan Heher’s Peace Corps service from 1990-92, his return search for his Malian mother, and his Peace Corps Response service in 2011 span enormous changes in Mali. Long interested in Africa, he was accepted and was sent to Mali as an agriculture volunteer. Three months of well-organized training prepared him in Bambara language, Malian history and culture, dirt bike maintenance and repair, and agricultural/environmental needs and practices— but not with a mission to fulfill. Following a year of loneliness, uncertainty, and the Bamako coup, a serendipitous encounter led him to research the use and misuse of insecticides being distributed by USAID. Hence, his 2nd year mission: proposing and accepting a grant to bring a Colorado State entomologist to investigate, resulting in the promotion of Neem, an invasive local tree whose seeds easily became an organic pesticide. Ten years later, he returned to reunite with his extraordinary Mali mother, about whom he made a film. He tells of a failed project that led him to return to Mali as a Response Volunteer with Engineers Without Borders and the accident that required a medivac. He talks extensively about Malian history and culture, his experience during the coup, the differences and changes he has seen, and how little being gay affected his Peace Corps experience.

Interview Keyword

Peace Corps (U.S.) Niono, Mali (country of service) 1990-1992 (Years of service) Agriculture (PCV job) Sahel Ivory Coast Guinea Mauritania Secassa Region Tubaniso Jenai Mafti Niono (His post) Bambara (language) Marcela Segou Katibugu (village) Malaria Staj AFSI team Desertification Sed Mopti (a town) Timbuktu (ancient city) Gao Songri (empire) USAID AfriCare Project Autum Muga (means money) Tubas (White people) Sanjataketa Koulabali (means Jacob) Renae Park Salif Keta (musician) Montemussa Haj (Muslim custom) Renee KarenSongra (empire) Ghana (empire) Animist (a religion) Amu (his Mali mother) Ja ti di (Person in charge of one’s heart) Acacia (tree) Ya Gindo Blastosomiasis (illness) Terrorist (attacks) Nahum (bodyguard) Plan Plus Divining rod (Tool for finding underground water) Karen Woodbury (PC director) DDT Dow Chemical) Bashe VOTA Entomologist Colorado State University Neem (tree) Pesticides) Christian Science Monitor Dogan Hausa (Language) Eyah Tabaki Eid (festival) Bamako (capital of Mali) Fulani Ya Gindo MusaTrare AlfaKonarare Engineers Without Borders Sokoto Gay

Interview Rights

All rights to the interviews, including but not restricted to legal title, copyrights and literary property rights, have been transferred to the University of Kentucky Libraries.

Interview Usage

Interviews may only be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.