Down the Niger river on a pinasse

Myrtle Ryan -

A word you are going to hear all the time in Mali is cadeau, French for gift. In every village, children run up chanting “cadeau, cadeau”, almost like a mantra. It comes across as a greeting, rather than a real expectation of a present.

All this attention and shrill voices can become a bit wearying, but the overall impression is that visitors need not fear for their safety. Even walking alone in the dark never seemed to pose any kind of threat.

My recent two-week trip to Mali was not your average tourist-run-around-a-country. Our group met people who head renovation programmes in the Unesco World Heritage Site of Djenné; local directors of the Mission Culturelle in several towns throughout the country; archaeological specialists; and historians.

So what, for me, are the many memorable vignettes that make up the Mali mosaic? As I sit at my computer, back in the normal, dreary routine, here are some that spring to mind:

Beneath the full moon bodies sway, drums pound and excited calls ring out. We are attending a Bamana Sogo-bo (the animals come out) puppet-and-mask performance, which originated with the Bozo fishermen who live alongside the mighty Niger River. These puppets represent the artistic expression of a complex animist culture and as such feature many animals or fetish objects.

The puppets come in all shapes and sizes. Those manipulating them are hidden beneath fabric.

As they can see little, someone dances before them, guiding them. A Sogo-bo is normally only held on special occasions such as feast days and weddings, but one had been pre-arranged for our group.

Hundreds of villagers were present. They ignored us. This was their evening. As hot, excited bodies – hyped on the occasion – pressed in on us, the smell stimulated a strange excitement in me as well.

“Was this how potential enemies were once lulled into dropping their guard in the moment before the spears were raised to kill them?” I wondered dramatically.

Even more exotic are the Dogon masked dancers, but I shall deal with them and Dogon culture in another article.

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Photo Myrtle Ryan

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