On the way to the bus station we saw big groups of dirty boys in raggy clothes. They carry blue plastic containers or huge red tomato paste tins on a cord around their shoulders. We saw similar groups of boys in Burkino Faso as well. We have since learnt that they are given by their families to a religious man called a Marabout. The Marabout teaches them the Koran. The boys look unloved and unkept. They beg for money and food for themselves and the Marabout and sometimes are beaten if they do not have anything. Some of the groups we have seen number twenty. While the girls of the same age sell plastic sachets of water, sesame seed biscuits, or mangoes, the boys beg. We haven't been able to find out what happens to the boys when they have learnt all the Marabout needs to teach them. The boys seem to range from five to about fourteen. They hang around taxi stops, bus stations and street corners.
In the morning we took a bus to the Djenne junction but on the way it broke down and we had to transfer to another bus. At the Djenne junction we had to wait for a vehicle to fill with either 5 people or 14 people so had to sit at the dusty intersection in the heat. A man gave us a wooden seat under a shelter and in no time we were surrounded by the local kids selling mangoes. Chris entertained them and had them laughing and doing all sorts of acrobatics. After a couple of hours of this the small taxi driver decided he would take us into Djenne for a set price as there didn't seem to be many people getting off the passing buses at the junction.
The first guesthouse we checked out was overpriced so we headed into the town. The place we looked at there was dark and dirty. Finally, we found a comfortable quiet place with a garden near the town centre.
Djenne has been a large organised settlement since 300 BC. By the 6th century AD the lucrative trans-Saharan trade in gold, salt, and slaves had begun. Today Djenne is famous as a UNESCO World Heritage site, having the largest mud structure; the Great Mosque. It was built in 1907, and each year it takes a couple of thousand workers to repair it after the rains.
The river is low at present and there are lots of people making mud bricks from which the houses are made.
The buildings are Moroccan or Moorish style.
One of the tourist sites is the tomb of a young girl who was sacrificed because the town was thought to be evil and her death would save it from bad spirits.
There are also many Quranic schools and has a library of old manuscripts.
Along the banks of the Bani River are plots of onions and other vegetables. This is the only green area for miles. The locals come out in the evenings to water and weed their crops.
Our guide books says you will fall in love with Djenne and not want to leave. I found it hot and dusty made worse by the speeding motorbikes and donkey carts stirring up the grey dust. Maybe it is a nicer place in the wet season but I couldn't find anything endearing about it. We were constantly approached by people wanting to sell jewelery or take us to their aunts store where we could buy Bologan cloth. This is cotton cloth dyed with different colours of mud.
We had to catch a ferry to get in and out of the town and it has a stall selling jewelery set up on the deck.
The sheep sit on little islands of green grass in the river, while hundreds of cattle struggle on the surrounding farms looking for food. Some of the nomadic Fulani tribe drove thousands of cattle from place to place looking for feed.
I didn't enjoy Djenne at all as it was so hot, dusty and the touts were too aggressive. I was probably quite tired after the Dogon walk and probably needed time to rest up.
To get out of town we rang the taxi driver who brought us in and then had to flag down a passing bus at the junction when they went passed at 8am. The bus was hot and stuffy with no opening windows and we headed back to Bamako. Everytime we stopped the Marabout begging boys would stand at the two exit doors singing proverbs from the Koran. Some singers were good while others were atrocious as they tried to attract the passengers attention and donation.
