Mali, Dogons, Timbuktu and a little thing about a New York mosque.

Click here to listen.

This week we have a very special guest on the show, all the way from Mali, West Africa. 

Apene is a tour guide in his native Mali and guided Simon when he and his wife visited there in 2008. They've kept in touch and when Apene came to the US to visit the US tour agencies he works with, they met up in San Francisco. Apene has just started his own tour company, so was here to talk with the local agencies. His company is called Mali Dogon Travel and you can see his web page here.

Dogon village scene.

Greg joined the fun and we all had a great discussion, that turned into a very educational podcast, and therefore blog entry.

We first headed tor a Peruvian lunch first, which was yummie, at Fresca Restaurant on 24th Street.

It was too noisy to chat and record in the restaurant but we started to record on the walk back to Mary's house.....thanks for hosting Mary, very kind of you.

Mali is an enormous nation, in West Africa, at the bottom of the Sahara. It is the home of famous areas, such as Timbuktu, The Niger River, and 18 different ethnic peoples, including the The Dogon People, of which Apene is one, the Fulani and Tuareg. We put links for these as we talk about them in the podcast.

When Apene refers to the Fulani people conquering the are and converting the population to Islam, and the Dogon people's moving to their current location to avoid conversion, they were referred to as the Fula Jihads.

Dogon Village looking up at the Bandiagara Escarpment
with caves at the top, originally occupied by the Tellem
peoples.

We discuss Mali, the nation, the people, the travel and here are some photos from Simon's visit.

At the end of the chat, since Mali is a predominantly Islamic nation, we discuss the '"round Zero Mosque". Apene makes some very interesting points and it's definitely well worth listening to. A fascinating discussion all round.

We end this show with music from West Africa by Habib Koite.

However, the country deserves a few photos and here are some, taken by Simon during his visit there.

Traditional housing of the Gurunsi people (with defense in mind) in Burkina Fasu, the neighboring country to Mali and also visited by Simon.

Lady carrying food produce in the traditional way in Mali. They also carry large tubs of local beer like this too.

Apene refers to the local "Fetishes" that are used for religious purposes and sacrifices (usually of poor chickens). This is one of the more creepy ones, actually from Burkina Fasu. It smelled of dead chicken and blood.

One of the local children, standing in a doorway, close to where the previous fetish picture was taken. 

A very happy and pleasant man we met in either Timbuktu or Djenne (can't really remember which but I think it was Timbuktu.)

A girl who found us a very curious sight, in Timbuktu. 

Local pre school in Timbuktu.

Notice it's boys only.

A local Tuareg sat on a sand dune outside of TImbuktu, Mali.

Fisherman on the Niger River, Mali.

River boat captain on the Niger River. If you click to enlarge the image and look in his glasses closely, you'll see the shape of the traditional boat we were on: very narrow and long.

A rather splendid looking mosque seen along the banks of the Niger River, Mali.

Dogon art, along the Bandiagara Escarpment, aka, Dogon Country.

A Dogon musician, performing during a traditional masked dance.

Traditional masked dancers, ready to practice. The one on the right is the hunter. There are many variations representing different aspects of life.

The front of the Djenne Mosque, taken at sunrise, hence the lovely yellow coloring.


Here endeth today's edumacational blog. Hope you enjoyed....however....

BMSMA.


G&S