NY Times article about Djenné

This article in the New York Times about Djenné is well worth reading.  I recommend the video too, which fleshes out the author's opinions and adds some great imagery.

The article does a good job of capturing Djenné, and the world heritage sight designation is an issue which we heard about from local residents when we visited.  But I think the article it is a bit off the mark.  I've only spent two days in Djenné and I've lived in Mali for just four months.  But that won't stop me from taking issue with the Gray Lady.

The article and the video imply that Djenné is stuck in a time warp, their hands tied by UNESCO.  The implication is that the open sewers, the requirement to live in mud-brick buildings, the trash, the rotten odor in the air are all confirmation of a unique problem.  The truth is that Djenné is the same as --and possibly better off than -- other places in Mali.  The entire country is plagued with open sewers, trash, odor, and people living in structures you would be embarrassed to let your dog sleep in.

For example, walk out the door of my house most evenings and the smell of burning garbage is the first thing you'll notice.  Then exit my walled courtyard, step across the 4-foot wide smelly open sewer, and cross the dusty dirt road strewn with trash.  Here you'll meet our closest neighbors, a family of about 10 who live in a 1/4-constructed house half-sealed from the elements by corrugated tin and plastic tarps.  The women who live here walk about 200 meters each day to fetch water for cooking, cleaning, and drinking.  Now turn around and you'll see a lean-to against our property's perimeter wall.  Underneath this pile of bricks, tin, and a plastic tarp lives another family.  In Djenné at least the homes are fully constructed and most have running water.

The video also talks about falling river levels due to climate change.  For the record, the river reached higher than normal levels during the last rainy season.

I had the opportunity to travel the countryside around Djenné.  We saw countless little villages that might be called "mini-Djenné's".  In this region everybody lives in mud brick structures -- even when UNESCO doesn't require it.  Each town has it's own beautiful mud-brick mosque as well.  None of these towns get money from UNESCO.

For example, here's one especially large mosque in Djiafarabe, another island city near Djenne:

And here's a picture of a typical small village near Djenné (taken as I sped by in a car).  Note the beautiful tiny mud mosque in the middle-left:

Something that became especially clear to me in my recent travels is that Mali is a very poor country.  Djenné is part of this, but in my mind is no worse off, and in fact is probably better off in many ways, than other towns in Mali.

Video

Rebecca and I traveled for three weeks over winter break.  Here are four videos.

Camel Racing at Festival au Desert just outside Timbuktu:


Some scenes from Dogon Country:


Golden Monkeys in Rwanda:


Gorillas in Rwanda:

Greetings

It's hard to overstate how important greetings are in Mali.  When passing someone on the street in Bamako a "Bonjour, ca va" will suffice.  But if you see an acquaintance you must inquire about how they slept (early in the day at least), their family, and perhaps their children, parents, and siblings.  All of this is reciprocated and is in Bambara, the predominant regional language.

In rural Mali greetings are even more important, and in Dogon Country, where I recently spent 6 days, I saw this up close.  For example, in these villages which are typically about 300 people, the women may walk up to 500 meters through steep and rocky terrain to get 3 gallons of water which they carry on their head in a pot.  They've likely made this same trip every day since they could walk.  But everyone they see is greeted for about 5 seconds with a chorus of what sounds like "say-oh" being repeated back and forth about 10 times.  As we were walking with our guide, Oumar, he would also greet most people -- whether it be someone farming on the side of the path, or someone driving by on their motorbike (very rare).  But in that case the motorbike stopped, they greeted each other, and the rider continued.