Stuck in Sevare...

 

 ...having a most annoying time. Although that seems like a misnomer for what is going on- central Mali is experiencing a sort of melt down, and that is of course more tragic than annoying.

I did finally get on a UN plane for Bamako –this time a great Hercules cargo plane with the Swedes in charge-and had that lovely evening of respite with Eva.  We jumped in the pool at midnight! Then directly onto the dusty road northwards for more hardships the following day.

 

In Djenne I found the situation much deteriorated since December, and I took the decision to leave  after two nights  chez moi, since I was receiving a barrage of security warnings from all directions, and Eva pleaded with me to leave.  Kidnapping risk was on Red Alert according to high level security intelligence. Even my own staff thought I ought to leave. So I once more arranged my belongings and thought of what I should bring in case I never returned again. That scenario has been played out before: Keita and I spent a night packing up in 2012 before our dawn car escape south on abandoned roads when it looked as if the Jihadists stood  at the gates of Sevare and were on the march south.

So I gave hasty instructions for the MaliMali studio and the library once more.  And I was supposed to work in Djenne for a week! 

 Maman is scared. His uncle, a ‘Dozo’, that is to say a Chasseur, one of the traditional hunters of Mali, was killed ten days ago by adherents of the Macina group. The new development here is that the Dozo have taken it upon themselves to guard and defend the villages which are abandoned by the state.  I have always maintained that Mali is a country blessed with no inter-racial hatred. But the situation is now rapidly declining and taking on a form of tribal feuding, since both around Djenne and in the Dogon country the factions are the nomadic  Peul (Fulani) against the sedentary Bambara and Dogon villagers. It is broadly speaking true that the Macina group which is tied to the Jihadists is mainly a Fulani group. Therefore a distrust of the Fulani in general has now spread in the centre, and attacks on quite innocent Fulani have taken place.

I heard reports  that after the recent attack at the dam construction site close by Djenne, the attackers spread in three different directions. One of these groups were taken by surprise in a village by the local Dozo,  eliminated,  and their modern weapons were confiscated. The revenge for this act was swift and terrible as several villagers were killed by the Macina group and their horses and carts were set alight and destroyed. Therefore the poor villagers no longer dare travel by their time honoured charettes, and cannot go to the markets as usual to sell or exchange their village produce. Maman had three elderly relatives who were supposed to come to Djenne for the cataract operations, but they did not dare risk the journey to Djenne.

The Malimali studio has quite a few orders- that is a ray of hope in the middle of this tristesse- but Maman and Dembele are no longer able to travel to the Bani with their motorcycles to wash the bogolan fabric: it is prohibited to travel outside Djenne with motorcycles. That problem was solved with the purchase of a bicycle. We are not as easily stopped as that! 

Last night Hotel La Falaise in Bandiagara – the gateway to the Dogon country- was attacked by the Jihadists and one person killed and several injured. Bandiagara is just around the corner from where I find myself, and people are now telling me to get out of here in a haste too. But I will stay put now. Whether I will be on the plane to Timbuktu on Tuesday is not yet certain. And what is even more disturbing is that the precious boxes of digitizing material for the project’s second stage have been tied up in labyrinthine bureaucratic formalities in Bamako and have still not received the go ahead for shipping by the UN to Timbuktu. I nearly despair!

Just to put the icing on the cake, there is virtually NO internet connection here at the moment, AND I have been beaten five times in a row on computer chess.

Some hope...

At the airport now and it looks as if we will be on our way, inchallah...
The TV in the little airport shop shows footage of Soumailou Maiga, the Premier Minister from his visit to Kidal yesterday. This visit is symbolic for the unity of Mali and  for the peace process I suppose, although some Malians like Guida thinks the visit has cost too much in negotiation and compromise to even put in place. There were joyful and festive scenes in Kidal where he seems to have been well received in sharp contrast to what happened when Moussa Mara attempted to do the same in 2014, ( was it? )and all hell broke lose...
Maiga is now in Gao and at 16.00 he is due in Timbuktu, which now explains all those Tuareg dignitaries at the Hotel.. .

Third time lucky?

 The above is the check point before arriving at the airport of Timbuktu. This morning I crossed it again, with some hopes that I might get to Bamako and enjoy that  lovely evening at Eva's, albeit a day delayed. Alas, no. We are still at the mercy of the Harmattan...so for the the second night my driver from Djenne is standing by in Bamako to take me 'home' to Djenne. Tomorrow morning there is a UN plane scheduled, so , who knows? Will I be on it? If not, there is going to be no room at the inn for me, and this is the only place to stay in Timbuktu...

When Amadou the driver took me back to the Auberge du Desert again there was a pick up standing by the hotel full of Tuareg fighters all in turbans and  with kalashnikovs . They looked just like the pick ups one sees on the Mali news site Malijet when they cover various incidents in the North,  and indeed when Amadou  saw them he said: 'Voila l'MNLA!' . But of course they are not called that anymore- these people we saw are some of the factions who are now called the CMA, and they  have signed the peace accord. They are having a meeting here at the Auberge with a large number of Malian  government people this weekend who have requisitioned the hotel. Nevertheless they did look rather scary, and I decided to lay low and not take a picture of them.  Only managed a bad snapshot of some of their leaders who  they were guarding, which does not do justice to their rather splendid outfits:

So tomorrow I MUST leave, whatever happens...
I am feeling very sad not to have been able to be present at the cataract  operations in Djenne, the 6th edition, sponsored again by my cousin Pelle and his wife Nanni. They are held at the hospital where my Keita worked, and they are now are held in his memory- 100 people will receive their sight back.  That is something!

A Trying Day...

I was looking forward to a girly gourmet dinner in the delightful company of Eva at the Swedish residence in Bamako tonight. That was to be followed by coffee and Armagnac in front of some fascinating film on her wide screen. Alas, it was not to be. Instead I still find myself on the dusty terrace of the Auberge du Desert in Timbuktu, attempting to chew my way through possibly the oldest and scrawniest chicken that ever polluted a Malian table.
My flight to Bamako was cancelled since the whole of north and central Mali is enveloped in a thick yellowish dust cloud containing swirling sand from the Sahara swept in by the Harmattan. I am reminded of  a terrifying flight between Timbuktu and Mopti last year, when the powers that be decided to risk it regardless of the inclement conditions and the little MINUSMA plane was thrown about like a drunken sailor and we the passengers, including  hard bitten old UN officers ended up holding hands, praying and hugging strangers.

So here I sit.  Now and then I have sad conversations with people on the telephone:
with dear Faira Keita, the ophthalmologist:
 ' so sorry Faira, will not be able to be in Djenne  for the closing ceremony of the cataract surgery on Saturday'.
With airport officials:
'Surely if the plane that takes me to Bamako tomorrow stops in Mopti I will be able to get off there rather than travel all the way down to Bamako in order to travel all the way up again in a car the following day? What do you mean? I can't? Why NOT???!'

With Ga, the driver from Djenne who drove down to Bamako today to pick me up: 
'Sorry Ga, you will have to stay in Bamako and wait for me another day'.

But the weather was not the only problem today. Other conversations take this form:
With Fane, in charge of moving three large boxes between the airport in Bamako and the MINUSMA:
'What do you mean? You have finally managed to pick up the digitizing material from the Airport AND YOU TOOK IT TO THE WRONG PLACE? And now you are going away and can't deal with it?? What exactly do you expect me to do about it stranded at the airport in Timbuktu!???'

With Halimatou, the local project manager here:
'What do you mean, the Timbuktu  IT person has managed to wipe off all the meta data from the last months from the computers  when he reinstalled Windows!?' Surely he backed all the stuff up? He didn't??!'
And just to top it all, have been beaten at computer chess three times in a row.

Timbuktu

It never ceases to amaze me how some people manage to get around the clock UN soldier surveillance in Timbuktu- I have tried now and then to muster some security presence for my visits here, but have never even received a reply from MINUSMA, who is the body in charge of security arrangements. I just have to sign a form agreeing that they are in no way responsible for my safety.  Oh well, never mind. They do supply me with the UN flight here, and I am grateful. That is perhaps all that is necessary.  Besides, an escort of soldiers would undoubtedly cramp one’s style...but nevertheless, can’t help wondering why I am unsuccessful when everyone else seem to be surrounded by  a small private army.

Take these two German journalists for instance, here on a brief visit for Die Welt Sunday magazine. They arrived this afternoon at the Djingareyber Mosque in not one but TWO UN vehicles and with TEN blue helmeted fully armed UN soldiers standing guard all around the mosque while they made their visit. ‘Why do these people get all this entourage?’ I commented to Baba Mulai Haidara, one of the digitization team. ‘ Peut etre que ce sont des grands Boss? ’ said Baba. ‘Je suis plus Boss qu’eux ‘ I said immodestly but I believe, truthfully. I am in charge of a project here that needs to continue. They are two journalists passing through.

Oh, I am not complaining, really. When things went pear shaped in August, we were after all rescued by the Swedes and well looked after in Camp Nobel.

So what is happening? As usual quite a difficult and highly charged time here- much has to be accomplished in the three days I am allocated for security reasons.  The team is working well, and the local manager Halimatou and I have been ironing out various rather dull administration matters to do with social security payments etc. On the more exciting side of things, we are beginning to move into the Al Wangara library by the Sidi Yahia Mosque: the library is being put into shape once more to receive the manuscripts  which have been stored  for years.  We opened one of the hiding places to which  part of the books and manuscripts were removed in great haste in 2012, thereby disturbing years of desert   dust .

 

The Timbuktu staff is really quite a well educated lot- I am quite amazed at the calibre of the new recruits. Have just met Alpha Cisse, my new digitization worker at the Al Wangara library. He has a licence (B.A.) in English, and a Masters in Business Administration.  He is far too qualified of course for this position that we are offering him, but there is no other work available so he is pleased about his new job.  He is also interested in the manuscripts and passionate about literature and the culture of Timbuktu. He and some like minded  young people have started  a sort of literary association here that organizes  evenings called ‘les dunes literaires’when they congregate on some sand dunes just outside Timbuktu and invite  local writers or poets  to read and to discuss their work. Such writers of Timbuktu are Sanchirfi Alpha and Salem Ould El Hadj, a Timbuktu historian. This group has even produced an antology of Timbuktu poetry, recently published by the Bamako publisher Innove.  Wow. I am impressed...  Dare I go with them on a Dune Literaire next time I go to Timbuktu?

Other delights this time was my visit to the Djingareyber Mosque for the very first time – have only seen it from the outside until now.

...and just ran into the German journalists at the hotel: they are writing an article about the MINUSMA: the UN forces in Mali.  Now, that explains the concentration of UN troops looking after them! I feel less neglected as a consequence...

The Good Samaritan.

My friend Karen and I always spend one day by the pool of Hotel l’Amitie on my visits to Bamako.  It  is a day of total indulgence involving lunch of delicious club sandwiches and chilled chardonnay  and the rest of the day just floating around the turquoise expanse of the fabulous pool  which  must be one of the best in West Africa...  and  gazing up to the sky through the palm trees, gossiping , laughing and exchanging news of Bamako and London.

As we lay under our palm tree Karen told me the story of how she had rescued a donkey... it is a sad tale, but I think it deserves retelling.

During my twelve years when I lived here in Mali I had several donkeys- they were working animals, pulling our carts for various tasks at the hotel. Sometimes there was a foal, and a donkey baby really is the sweetest thing imaginable.

But my fascination with the little creature would  rapidly wane and soon it was just another donkey- a creature that held no real interest for me. We treated them well of course but little by little I adopted something of a utilitarian attitude to working animals. This did not include my horses, which I loved.  

Many Malians treat donkeys extremely badly- they belong to the lowest ranks in the animal kingdom. When they die they are just thrown onto a piece of waste land to rot. Even before they die- if they are sick they are often just abandoned to die. 

Karen is passionate about animals. She went walking in the country side by Siby to the south of Bamako with a friend about a week ago when she came across just one such sick donkey, lying in the burning sun, unable to get up and clearly very sick. The kindhearted Karen could not abide the sight of it and asked a local woman passing whose donkey it was.  The woman just shrugged her shoulders and said ‘its been there for days. Isn’t it dead yet?’ then she moved on down the path.

This callous response awakened Karen’s  heroic instincts.  She insisted to her walking companion that they drag the donkey into the the shade of a tree at least... (the donkey looks as if it has the plague, and I am frankly not surprised that the locals were unwilling to step in to help in the rescue...) To drag the poor animal  to the tree proved quite a feat: an immobile donkey is very heavy.  But by now Karen was unstoppable and she  somehow found some water for it , then  went to the main road where she hailed a three wheeled moped taxi . With a huge effort they were able to hoist the sick animal onto the small vehicle, which then transported  it on a journey of many miles back to Karen’s house in Bamako(!)

And there it lay panting  in her garden  for several days while she fed it and it was given injections and treatments by the vet who looks after her dogs. When we were at the pool yesterday the poor donkey was still alive and  Karen was overjoyed: she had found an  NGO that rescues mistreated animals: https://spana.org/about-us/our-work/ourcorecountries/mali and they had promised to come and pick the donkey up this morning.

Alas, the poor creature will never experience the care and attention of this sanctuary. Today Karen  informed me with great sadness that it had died during the night... but surely the little creature will welcome her in paradise when she makes her triumphal entry?

URGENT: Mali by RFI ( Radio France Inter)

I just became aware of this through Sarah Castle, a fellow Mali veteran. This dam has been in construction for several years and was nearing completion. Some of the managerial South Korean staff used to stay in my hotel now and then...yesterday morning the dam suffered a serious attack:

Destruction of the construction site of a dam near Djenné

By RFI -

Suspected armed jihadists attacked and burned down early Thursday, March 8 the construction site of a dam in central Mali, near the city of Djenné, in the region of Mopti.

According to one witness, there were about 30 armed men, suspected jihadists on motorbikes. They regrouped the site workers, including South Koreans, before sending everyone away. Then they set the building on fire.

A 60-ton crane started to burn. Another 30-ton crane was burned. Vehicles, generators, parts of the structure that were subsequently to be erected were destroyed. The attackers then left.

The dam was to be inaugurated in four months. It will now be necessary to wait several months. This project, which has three parts, was initially expected to cost about 35 billion CFA francs, and change the local landscape.

The dam was going to provide a link the city of Djenné by a bridge. Until now this tourist resort can only be reached a ferry across the river Bani, a tributary of the Niger River.

Another part of the dam was intended to recreate life in this part of Mali. Once operational, the structure was to allow flooding 50,000 hectares of land upstream.

What wanton destruction of infrastructure that surely is valuable to anyone, whatever their religious/political inclinations. And really incomprehensible  that they set about destroying generators and vehicles. Even Jihadists, surely, would potentially be using the benefits of this dam if they ever came to power- God forbid.  I should imagine  Guida would agree with me on this...

I have not heard from my people in Djenne yet. Leaving for  Mali Sunday morning.

Later: Dembele sent me the  pictures above and below just now.

Written in the Sand

is the title  of the article that Anthony Sattin wrote for Christie's magazine after his visit to Djenne last year:
pages 24-27.http://www.christies.com/zmags ?ZmagsPublishID=4a3dd2e8
It is a lovely article and my vanity is being pleasantly massaged, since it is almost unheard of that  I personally appear in  an article about the  manuscript  projects...

I think of last year with some nostalgia- the last six months at the hotel were full of happy times and visits by people I thought would never make it to the hotel:  Anthony came in the company of my old friend Nicholas and his drone flying camera man  Axel - their mission for surveillance of cultural heritage sites ran into trouble from the local authorities- but Nicholas came back in the company of  Alice Walpole, the British Ambassador (who is now in Baghdad) and two charming security staff. Then to my delight came my dear friend Eva Emneus, the Swedish ambassador in the company of Swedish UN officers.  There was also a visit from the US Ambassador Paul Folmsbee and his wife I believe, but they were looked after by my staff when I was away...
Then there were  Elisabet and Henri, the film making team who are now cutting an editing the film they made  on their two visits to the hotel during its final months. 
 I am sure I must have forgotten someone and something. It was certainly a rich few months before the end...

I am now trying to put in place my up coming Mali trip- UNESCO are being difficult about the length of time I need to spend in Timbuktu- they are worried about safety and they are right to worry, of course... But the digitizing material is being sent from Minnesota  this week, and we are setting up a new studio in Timbuktu- at the Al Wangara library, which is connected to the Sidi Yahia Mosque.
I need to do interviews for new staff and a million other things. We will follow on swiftly, inchallah, with the Al Aquib Library which is attached to the Sankore Mosque. Once that has been done, our project ELIT will be digitizing the manuscripts of the three libraries which are connected to the three most ancient Mosques of Timbuktu, built in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries : we are already working on the Imam Essayouti library of the Djingareyber Mosque.  These libraries, together with their Madrasas make up what used to be called the University of Timbuktu. 

Now, this is something I am finding really exciting. There is a  pleasing symmetry and a symbolism in that these three venerable  libraries  have remained in Timbuktu and that they have asked for  our help. They are now finally going to be digitized and the fact that the work will be carried out  in Timbuktu itself is an act of defiance and hope.