Mali 19 -- Djenne

The mosque, built in 1907, is off-limits to non-Muslims. A few years ago Vogue staged a photo shoot there, which offended the citizens of Djenne. Every year the rains wash away some of the mud from which it is made, and every year young men climb the wooden scaffolding to repair it.

The Monday market draws merchants from all over the region. A smaller, everyday market takes place in a small open-air building. Tourist groups usually try to reach Djenne on market day, so that the already crowded streets are also filled with hired Land Rovers and buses.

Djenne is fast becoming one of the biggest tourist attractions in West Africa, profiting from the popularity of its twin sister city, Timbuktu, but more importantly from its own celebrity as an archaeological site. When the rains come, the plain separating the city from the mainland floods, and much of the water remains during the dry season, enabling the inhabitants to farm in the otherwise hostile northern climate. The big attraction is the mosque, built in 1907 in the image of another, more ancient mosque that had been destroyed. It is manufactured out of mud and clay and every year it must be repaired after the rainy season. The wooden beams protruding from the top serve as a sort of permanent scaffolding. On Mondays the market attracts buyers and sellers from all over the region, as well as tourists from all over the globe. The region is more diverse ethnically than southern Mali, and Malinke, Peul herders, Bozo fishermen, Sonrai and Tuareg/Tamashek live together in enviable harmony. Most of the people we met spoke all four local languages, and, if they were educated, Arabic and/or French. About 80% of the junior high school students go on to high school, usually in other metropolitan areas such as Bamako, Sikasso, Segou, Mopti, or Kayes. The rest go to work for their family business, whether it is raising cattle or sheep and goats, or blacksmithing, weaving, fishing, farming, trading, or more and more, selling blankets and other traditional art objects to the ever-increasing flood of tourists. Koranic education is also widespread, preparing boys for a careers as koranic schoolteachers or religious leaders. Islam in Djenne is more strict than in the south: women are not allowed in the mosque, except on Fridays, and then only if they have made the pilgrimage to Mecca. The mosque is barred from all non-muslims, following an incident in the 1980’s in which Vogue staged a photo shoot that offended the community deeply.

Marabouts use cowrie shells and other means to predict the future. Student with big exams coming up seek advice from them, and are given fetishes or instructions for sacrifices to ensure their success. Marabouts also claim to help with problems of the heart, co-wife quarrels, and even advertise cures for baldness, infertility, and AIDS.

Mali is 80% Muslim; the Almoravid invasion in the 14th century resulted in the conversion of many merchants, who wished to maintain trade relations with the north. Catholic and Protestant missionaries found it tough going, and Christianity is virtually non-existent. Islam was a great mystery to me throughout the trip. Cherif did not discuss it, our families did not discuss it, and there was no real information about it in our assigned readings. We discussed traditional practices in great detail, but hardly any mention was made of the religion that supplanted the old beliefs. I wanted to know about the role of Islam in the modern world, and I found that the writings of the Koran are often mixed with traditional beliefs. One can be a good muslim, believe in Allah, pray five times a day, and still go to the marabout when one needs help with an ailment, curse, or upcoming test.

Marabouts, or karamogos (teachers) use cowrie shells and other means to predict the future. Student with big exams coming up seek advice from them, and are given fetishes or instructions for sacrifices to ensure their success. Marabouts also claim to help with problems of the heart, co-wife quarrels, and even advertise cures for baldness, infertility, and AIDS.

Dante had his own ideas about marabouts. A devout Muslim, he viewed any kind of animism as blasphemy. Rather than being self-righteous, however, he likened marabouts to lawyers, who live off of other people's misfortunes. When times are bad, marabout business goes up as people try to figure out the source of their problems and how to change them. It does them no good, he said, to do all those sacrifices. God will help you along the path he's chosen for you. People use marabouts to advance themselves at the expense of others, which in turn brings them unhappiness. And the marabouts are simply taking advantage of people.. His view sounded very western, and I was surprised to hear him speak it with such vehemence. From what Cherif had told us, everyone believed in the old ways, at least a little bit.