Djenne phone call

 I had a lovely call with the Djenne Manuscript Library today (above). I spoke with them all on WhatsApp: it felt as if I was back in Djenne. I wanted to know from my old friend and colleague Babou Toure,  whom I have chosen as the local manager of our project at the library, what the situation was. He had worried me yesterday with his message regarding an unusual amount of deaths. Babou is one of Djenne's 11  kintigi (neighbourhood chiefs) and keeps a check on all the births, deaths etc. for his Sankore neighbourhood. Here, below right he sits by his ancient home which houses the Wangara sacred well, through which legend has it that it is possible to communicate with Timbuktu. According to  Yelpha, the Imam of Djenne, and our erstwhile mutual colleague at the library the marabouts used this means of communication during the Jihadist siege of Timbuktu. A bit like ZOOM for those under siege from the Corona virus, perhaps,  just with some extra magic thrown in?

Babou, as the kintigi of Sankore has been busy recently at an extraordinary amount of funerals to which he is obliged to make an appearance. The deaths are normally the old and those that may have suffered from illness in any case, he now told me. He did not think it was corona virus, but instead he thought it was a result of the very excessive heat this year- the temperature hovers in the upper forties right now. And this is also the time of the dust storms- a hard time for the old, especially since there are no air conditioners to speak of in people's houses.
I was relieved to hear that he did not think it had anything to do with Covid 19. But then again, who knows? People die in Djenne and no one normally knows the cause of death...there is no way of finding out, even at the hospital, said Babou.
Here below in the library is the gentle Ousmane Yaro, our manuscript expert and a descendant of many generations of  Djenne poets and scholars. I spoke to him too. I miss them all...!
Have optimistically booked my return to Mali  on the first available Air France flight, which start again in July.

More tea?