Let me have a good gripe

I wrote in the beginning of this new journal ( I dislike the word blog, like my friend Gilliane who quite rightly says it sounds like a blocked bog) that this new adventure, my Commuting to Timbuktu, would never have come about if it had not been for one day last February, when I chose to go to Timbuktu for a UNESCO conference rather than jumping on a plane for Sweden to celebrate my beloved step father’s ninetieth birthday. Well, was that the best decision ? From the vantage point of today I am beginning to wonder…
It is just that Mali at the moment feels unbelievably difficult. Every step of the way I am hitting my head against brick walls. One, increasingly higher than the last, instantly soars up beyond the brick wall  I have just painstakingly dismantled. I am carrying out combats on three different fronts: There is of course the Timbuktu Project ; there is also my Quixotic attempt at continuing the Malimali Studio, and there is the dismantling of the last BL project at the Djenné Library, which has proven utterly nightmarish.
Where to start?

Since 2009, there have been 4 consecutive BL projects at the Djenné Manuscript Library. Every time a project was  finished, I have thought that it would be worth trying for another one, for the sake of the 8-10 people who have been finding their livelihood through these projects. It was  also for my own interest and pride  of course : I have thought that just maybe we would find something really worth while, something that would change the way we look at West African history. I felt part of something important. Well, we have not found anthing very extraordinary perhaps, but we have built up an important community library, representing over 130 Djenné families. That is worth something.
There have always been undercurrents of dissatisfaction. The group of 12 Djenné notables  who constitute the library management committee have not been directly involved with the running of the projects. There have been salaried positions of work to fill and those have been filled. There has not been any money allocated to distribute freely among the management committee. I have not undertaken these projects  for any personal gain: I have hardly earned anything from the Djenné projects. I have worked with two representatives from this management committee, and they have had the task of keeping the others informed. I have always provided detailed accounts and reports so that they know what is going on. But they don’t like it. They cannot understand why they can’t get their hands on the money themselves.

 The day before yesterday the disagreeable and semi-illiterate new Dugutige (village chief), a small minded and vindictive person,  got involved. He has always had an unhealthy influence over the library's  IT/digitization room manager. Now he had got wind of the fact that I had arrived and that I was wrapping up the project  and that we were working on the hard-drives for the last touches on the project before I was to take them to London. Our IT manager was essential to this procedure, because although we have told him a dozen times to train someone up to do his work in case he was indisposed he has categorically refused to do so. Now he suddenly developed a ‘bad finger’ and did not turn up for work for the crucial last two days. I said that that bad fingers did  not constitute a reason for not turning up . We sent for him, we called him and we looked for him. He was nowhere to be found, possibly hiding out at the Dugutige's.   This means that I am now forced to leave  for London with incomplete material which has not been checked properly. That of course will be my fault. I have decreed that our IT Manager's  last month's salary entitlement, for the staff's  holiday in September, should be given to the poor, of whom there are many.

Then we were all called for a meeting at the Prefecture. The Dugutige, together with certain factions within the Library management committee, had insisted on calling a meeting. They wanted the library closed down. The pretext was a rumbling old dispute about the statutes and renewals of the management commitee. But the clear sighted Prefect saw behind the smoke screen : « you are all just annoyed that you have not been able to make any money from these projects. But a library is not a money making concern ! » I was given a chance to speak and I told them that I had been honoured to work at the Djenné Library and that I was very proud of what we had achieved and I had hoped they would feel the same. Then one of them, bless him, Monsieur Thera, spoke up for me and although I did not get all of his speech in Bambara, it was clear that he was saying something along the lines that if it hadn't been for me there would probably not be a Djenné library today.

Licking my wounds I returned to my studio in the afternoon where I promptly managed to destroy a piece of hand woven fabric which I was supposed to paint for an order for Australia.

And this morning I get a phone call from Baba Aly Touré, my bright  new local manager in Timbuktu. I had tried to find UN flights for the personnel to get down to Bamako immediately after the feast of Tabaski for their digitization training at SAVAMA. But there are no flights available. I told Baba to break the news to them that they would have to travel by road. Now he called me to say that some have refused because of the insecurity.
 Baba had just travelled up by road. Saadou is on his way up there just now.  There is a situation of insecurity here. We all know that. But we are trying to create something regardless of that fact.
In the end seven have agreed to travel down by car. I will meet them in Bamako. And then, insh'allah, this project will finally be on its way!