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.