Leaving Mali

The Mali trip is nearly done. As ever, fraught with difficulty but at the same time spilling over with precious memories and cram packed with life...

 I spent four days in Djenne, this time with my friend and collegue Maria Luisa Russo, who is also working with the manuscripts through the University of Hamburg. Although I may be inhabiting a fool’s paradise, I never feel worried for my safety in Djenne: all is so familiar- my big lovely bed is the best ever- and when I tuck myself in at night making sure the mosquito net is fitting snugly- keeping mosquitoes and creepy crawly undesirables out-  I feel as if nothing can touch me. I guess it wouldn’t provide much protection against a Jihadist with an AK47 though... but somehow I just feel safe and happy in Djenne. I made a visit to dear Imam Yelfa of course (above). 

 Of all my old staff Papa is doing best: he has opened a restaurant at the place in Djenne which used to be called Chez Baba. I feared it would not work, since there are no tourists in Djenne. But there are enough Malians still around who are not from Djenne and who ‘eat out’, like the bank manager M. Maiga whose family is in Bamako. Papa (standing up above) provides him and others with food every night.  Maria Luisa and I took the staff from the library for dinner on our last night. Those who have been at Hotel Djenne Djenno may recognize the chairs and the tablemats! 

But all is not safe and happy in and around Djenne- far from it. The situation in the surrounding villages has deteriorated since my last visit in April. The sudden rise in unaccustomed tribal fighting has multiplied and hearts and attitudes are hardening. The ‘Jihadists’or ‘bandits’ as the Djenne population prefer to call them, are carrying out attacks on the village population and are preventing them from cultivating. People have been killed while they are peacefully out sowing their fields. Therefore the villagers are scared to go into their fields:  ergo, famine will inevitably follow next year. Meanwhile the Dozo are getting better organized and armed- some say the Malian State are providing funds.  But the population itself is raising funds for the militia- if the state protection disappears, they will necessarily find other means to protect themselves.

Poor Maman, my erstwhile waiter and barman and now my guardian and bogolan worker at my house and studio, has been obliged to get into serious debt. His mother, a possibly well-meaning but overbearing person that forced him to get married when he was not ready, has now insisted that he provide 200 000 FCFA so his last remaining brother in the village can buy a gun for the family home in the village of Tabato- and support the Dozo militia. This he has done, because he feels he has no choice. People are wanting to leave Djenne- there is a deep, almost tangible  apathy and fear in the air;   into which IBK’s electioneering visit last week seems to have made no great dent. 

 Timbuktu was calm when I visited- although I had to sort out plenty of internal project difficulties- however, today I got the following message from Halimatou, our local boss:

‘Dear Sophie, since yesterday three vehicles have been burned by gangs of youths in Timbuktu.This morning about 9 am there was sustained rifle  fire in the market and it is still going on (written 13.30 pm)The team had started working but we decided that everyone should leave for home because of the insecurity.  We must all pray for the city of Timbuktu.’

This fighting was also, according to Youssouf Traore, one of our workers, a question of race: the white youths against the blacks- which means the Arabs, and  possibly the Tuaregs against the Songhai and other dark skinned people, I assume- this is a new development too and not normal in the town of Timbuktu itself, certainly! 

And meanwhile In Bamako the 24 presidential candidates are falling over themselves  creating ever greater election promises... here are some of them, a few viewed from the comfort of the Swedish Ambassadorial car:

 

 and finally, for the very last time, I spent a few lovely days with Eva in the Swedish residence. I cannot think what it will be like to come here when she is gone... but she is now leaving after the elections having spent five years here as ambassador. I could never express how much it has meant to me to count her as my friend  and to have spent so many happy times with her - now and when Keita was with us and used to sit in the garden under the mango tree and drink Malian tea with the security staff. He called her 'ma troisieme femme..' God Speed to Eva in her new life in Sweden.