Djenne

This journey is difficult. There is no doubt about it.  Nothing is gained without engaging in gargantuan struggles: just to be able to get on a flight north involves having to fight my way through bureaucratic rats nests...and just to get to Djenne is fraught with geographical near impossibilities since the water stands higher than at any point since the beginning of my acquaintance with this city in 2005. Here is my house, bogolan studio and land which has become an island. We spent years building up the level of the land, and now it pays off...

 Those who were born here in the sixties say they have never seen the water this high.  To arrive in Djenne one has to board a canoe for the last bit of the journey. The one good thing about this otherwise problematic situation is that the Jihadists and the Dozo ( traditional hunter)  militias have taken a holiday it seems. I suppose it is difficult to cause too many problems if one has to engage a canoe in order to cause havoc...

I went to see Imam Yelpha today just before leaving Djenne. He seems to have taken up some sort of mediator role in the current struggles in and around the town. He told me that on Thursday he is hosting a meeting  in Djenne between the commanders of all the Dozo Militia who are now encamped around Djenne in 24 camps in the bush. He says there are at least 5000 mobilized Dozo militia. This seems like an exaggeration to me but who knows? He wants to talk peace with them and with some leaders of the ‘Jihadists’. He is not intending to invite any  Malian state representatives like the Prefect or the remaining Djenne Gendarmerie. 
 It seems as if Djenne and its alentours  is reverting totally to traditional leadership. In addition, there is no UN presence here at all- they are all encamped in and  around Mopti, some hour and a half's journey north.  
 ‘And what will you say to the Jihadists’? I asked.  ‘That we want peace’, said Yelpha. ‘But if there is any more trouble we will kill them’, he added, ominously...
I left him and said I would pray that Allah would help him to bring peace.

I also had a nostalgic get together with Maman and Baba last night- my best and most faithful employees at Hotel Djenne Djenno. We spent quite some time analyzing the recent Football World Cup.

 Maman is still working for me but I am trying to find a place for him to study something sensible that is likely to give him a secure employment like plumbing. Baba has started a small business selling matches, petrol by the litre, washing powder and cigarettes etc. by the side of the road at his house.  He was the smartest of all my employees- he will get somewhere although the beginning is humble. There have been a constant flow of people passing by hoping to gain a little crumb from me. It is difficult... it is not as if I am earning a lot of money...but I gave Boubakar my old gardener (and perennial Father Christmas at Hotel Djenne Djenno) enough to buy a sack of rice. His gratefulness made my day, but at the same time made me feel quite alarmed at the extreme precariousness of his position, which is the same as many others are facing here. I asked him: ‘How do you eat then, if you have nothing?’ (He has seven mouths to feed!) He said that they don’t normally eat anything in the mornings, but sometimes they have something for lunch, and then they try not to eat everything but to keep something for the evening too. It is quite heart breaking.

Today I left for  Mopti and tomorrow further northward...