God Bless P.J. Harvey

Sitting here in my self isolation. Being a good girl. Well, not QUITE. I do go for walks but don’t talk to anyone. Not even on park benches.

But there is no doubt that now, on the 6^th day of quarantine it is getting to me.

So, thank God for PJ Harvey! I had forgotten about real music- the sort of music that makes one feel alive, capable of jumping over little houses and Wild at Heart. As if there is still Life to be lived. And that it up to me to go and Get It.

So All Hail Polly Jane!

"Meet Ze Monsta! "

“This is Love This is Love This is Love that I’m Feelin..!”

 

Farewell to General Moussa Traore

 

 

General Moussa Traoré  who ruled Mali  for more than 22 years died in Bamako yesterday at the age of 83. I have a picture of him on my wall in London.  This causes some raised eyebrows, since he was a dictator who ousted the first Malian president Modibo Keita in a coup in 1968. He was himself removed by a coup masterminded by Amadou ToumaniToure  in 1991. (The latter was of course also eventually removed by a coup in 2012...and so it goes on.)

Now, there are dictators and dictators. Let's be clear: Moussa was no Idi Amin. Many in Mali feel that the time during Moussa was  a stable time and  that the country has not improved since. A golden shimmer has gradually settled upon Moussa over time, helped along by gentle forgetfulness and the Malian people's ability to forgive almost anything. 

My Keita's father, Colonel Abdoulaye Keita was a personal friend of Moussa's and when Keita was a baby he bounced on Moussa's lap. That is the explanation for his picture on my wall, which I appropriated from Keita's wall after his death and therefore my soft feelings towards Moussa, dictator or not...

Alpha Oumar Konare, the civilian president who followed Moussa, pardoned him and had his death sentence removed.   Since 2002 Moussa was  able to  live in peaceful, genteel retirement, enjoying a status as an elder statesman, being visited by politicians and elite military including Colonel Assimi Goita, the leader of  the current  junta who sought his advice only a few days ago to outline a transition to civilian rule. 

RIP Moussa Traore.

 

It feels like a privilege to be here at this important moment for Mali. As always I wanted to see Dr. Guida Landoure, an intimate friend of my Keita's and an eminent neurologist.  He is right in the thick of things- in fact is is part of the M5-RFP, the coalition of various civilians and opposition politicians who orchestrated the uprisings this summer which culminated in the coup d'etat.

 Guida came to see me at Hotel Badala last night, straight from a meeting with some high powered other members of the group:  Cheick Oumar Sissoko, the film maker and former Minister of Culture is one of them. I was excited to hear that because I sat next to him for a dinner once at the Danish Ambassador's place (yes, yes, I know I am name dropping..)and he was a delight. I found out that he had never seen Babette's Feast, and I told him that it was a catastrophy for a celebrated film maker like him never to have seen it. The next time I went to Bamako I brought him the DVD which I delivered at the Malian film institute. But I digress... According to Guida the Western diplomats are wary of Sissoko who they think is too left wing. But Guida and some are proposing him for interim president.

 Guida told me that Dicko, the powerful cleric with Wahabist leanings who was instrumental in organising the uprisings and who has made out that his job is now  done and that he is  withdrawing is not telling the truth- he is still highly active in and around  M5-RFP. Now this might be a worrying thing- it would of course be best to keep religion out of it as much as possible.... But Guida is not worried about Dicko. Guida is very upbeat about it all and  still thinks it is possible to carve out a better Mali from the present  situation, although they are experiencing some trouble with the junta, whose recent 'roadmap' for the transition period was not acceptable to them because it stated that the president during the transition period could be either a civilian or from the military, although in earlier consultations it had been decided that the interim president must be a civilian. This U-turn made the group announce that

"M5-RFP distances itself from the ... document which does not reflect the views and decisions of the Malian people". 

So, let's see...the embargo continues and the neighboring ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African State) has given the ruling junta one week to chose an interim government.

And otherwise... my morning hikes with Karen continues in the green hills of Bamako!

Life goes on...

 

Life goes on in Mali for most of its people as if there hadn’t been any coup d’etat. And I suppose for most people it won’t make any difference. For the poor- by far the greatest part of the population- who struggle to put enough food on the table for their families every day life exists from day to day and nothing changes, only the clemency or the severity of the seasons. Above is one of the many enterprising market gardeners who attempt to make a living on the side of the road in Bamako.

 The Djennenke  (the population of Djenne) are suffering the severity of a particularly abundant rainy season just now. There has been unprecedented rainfall and many houses have fallen. However much I sympathize with the Djennenke in their plight, I can’t help feeling selfishly relieved that I am no longer in charge of a mud hotel… The rainy season was always a nightmare, because in happier times the beginning of the rainy season used to coincide with the ‘Spanish Season’, when southern Europeans tend to take their holidays. My guests would be slipping and sliding on the forecourt of Hotel Djenne Djenno trying – often unsuccessfully-to reach their rooms or the bar without falling over in the slurry descending from my mud walls which were disintegrating in the onslaught of the Mali tempests. 

                                                                                   

The picture above  illustrates quite graphically what happens on mud walls if they are not cared for- the Museum is falling apart. It was one of those gifts from Western coffers- the EU. Noone here actually wanted a Museum I believe. It is a very European idea. The locals said 'yes, thanks, sure we want a Museum if that is what you want to do.' It has been there for about ten years now. There has never been any exhibitions there and it is virtually unused. It is now a problem because it is huge and it needs to be looked after with a yearly mud plastering but since no one is really interested in a Museum it will now stand there and disintegrate. The gate below is the entrance to the area which houses the Campement hotel and the Mairie. This is falling apart because since the disappearance of the tourists all the impetus has gone out of maintaining any of the beauty of Djenne’s  architecture. 

                                                                          

  

More or less all the communal buildings are neglected - this the Post Office in a sorry state of repair:

                                                                               

The Mosque and the Library are the only ones that are receiving that all important  yearly mud plastering.                                                       

The problem about the rainy season here is that no one goes out. I am sitting here alone in my ‘suite’ at the venerable Campement Hotel. I have had my dinner, brought to me by Papa, my old chef at Hotel Djenne Djenno who knows what I like to eat- this evening he brought the  coleslaw I taught him to make with some grilled chicken and tomorrow he will bring me ‘GadoGado’ a Dutch Indonesian inspired dish that my  Dutch friend Birgit taught him to prepare. It is lovely to be able to see ‘my’ old staff. I am not about to go slipping and sliding around town so this will be an unusually ‘stay in’ visit to Djenne.

The local people I speak to are mostly the people I work with at the library or old friends of Keita’s. They are nearly all in favour of the coup d’etat and  the removal of IBK, even the members of his own party. Tomorrow I will try and venture down the slippery alley where my old friend Yelpha the Imam lives to see what he thinks about it all…