Archived Pages from 20th Century!!



 
 Journey to Mali
 
Malians view their world as a canvas and the elements as their brushes.

Whether it be architecture, wood carvings, mud cloth designs, bead

bracelets, gold jewelry, dance, or music, the people of Mali are creative.

 

 

Venture

into a

Dogon

Village,

  
 
 along the

 

Bandiagara Escarpment,
 
 and you may see a granary
 
that has a whimsical air
 
about it
 
  

 

or a centuries old dance,
or a spirit house

 

exemplifying the Dogon's

 

animist

 

beliefs.
 
 Before departing the village, the traveler may turn down a narrow

pathway

and find what was once a bare mud wall upon which some unknown

artist has

created a haunting mud bas-relief that will be gone after the next rainy

season.

  
 
 
This Malian journey retraced segments of Mungo Park s (more about him in a moment) African journeys. The travelers started in the capital, Bamako. From there, they went to Segou, Mopti, Sangha near the Bandiagara Escarpment, Dogon country, Djenne, villages along the Niger River, Kabara (the Port of Tombouctou), and Tombouctou. During this journey to one of the world's Mysterious Places, the travelers met members of tribes whose names conjured up images in the mind's eye of long ago adventures -- Bambara, Dogon, and Tuareg. In early November, a hot, dry wind begins to blow from the Sahara. It is the Harmattan. The skies of Mali become gray and will, except for brief respites, stay that way until late February. The photographs in this presentation were taken from November 3, 1996, through November 17, 1996.