Bamako is the Bomb-ako

The first sentence in the Mali chapter of the guidebook really sums it up: if you go to only one country in West Africa, make sure it’s Mali. Well, okay then.

We arrived in Mali in high style. It would have taken us 30 hours by sept-place or infinity hours by boat, so we treated ourselves to a quick 75 minute flight from Dakar. We fell in love with Mali immediately.  Bamako, which means “crocodile river”, is Mali’s capital and largest city.   As a visitor, Bamako was a great city for us to recharge and stock up on visas and provisions for onward travel.

Upon arrival one immediately notices the red dust in the air, the huge trees lining the streets, the relaxed feel, and the many mopeds… the millions of mopeds…perhaps all of the mopeds in West Africa.  Bamako, though poor, is a city that looks to have invested its limited resources (those not drained by foreign gold mining) fairly well: most of the streets are paved, the tap water is potable enough for the locals and expats to drink, and we haven’t experienced a power outage since we’ve been here (though we’re here just after the rainy season).

"November is a good month for art in Bamako"

A photo series of reflections in oil puddles.

Every two years, Bamako hosts what has become Africa’s premier photography exhibition: Rencontres de Bamako. Spread throughout various museums, monuments, and cultural institutions across the city, this year’s exhibition features photo collections depicting the environmental, economic, and political actions towards creating or preventing a sustainable world. 

Our first impression was that the 1960’s black & white sock-hop photos at the National Museum of Mali were snoozeville.  Then we bumped into the curator of African art for New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, who said it was an excellent exhibit and suggested we check out the other installations across the city. We're not going to lie, if someone highly credentialed says that something is art, we’re inclined to jump on their bandwagon.  After checking out the collection on oil in the Nigerian Delta, we agreed that the exhibit was one of the best we'd ever seen.

Shhhhh, the camel is sleeping

Mural at S.C.

One of the hardest parts of arriving in Bamako was explaining to the taxi driver that we were staying at The Sleeping Camel Hotel.  Having never learned the word for “camel” in French, we eeked out something that sounded like Le Dromidare Qui Dormie, and we then arrived at quite possibly the best backpacker’s hotel south of the Niger River (we’ve been to one).   We’ve stayed in great low-key places this whole trip – from the Maison Rose to great little auberges at the beach.  The Sleeping Camel, run by a 12-year resident of West Africa and a band of brilliant local guides, was our first foray into accommodations with overland travelers, and it was a great place to stock up on travel tips, get some laundry done and meet some red-faced world nomads.   

Usually backpack places strike fear and loathing in our hearts – they can be havens for downwardly mobile hipsters on vacation, where the right REI gear and passport stamp one-up-manship reign supreme.   In the few days that we stayed though, we met a nice mix of folks:  60-something Australian twins who have wandered the globe, a family with an infant in tow, a South African man who finished the Cape Town to Cairo path, and a handful of randoms who were stuck at camp fixing their mopeds before heading back on the road.   Part of what made this place so great for us was the relationship between the owner and the staff.   In stark contrast to others we’ve seen, the owner Matt was laid-back, appeared to trust and appreciate the staff, and the expertise of the local guides was genuinely respected.   Plus, the Camel makes a bacon-hash brown-fried egg-tomato-cucumber sandwich that is awesome.  Total thumbs up. 

Magic Happenings

Dried parrots, skinned lizards, gourds, furs, salt, and more.

A few weeks ago, we saw a small graphic of two concentric circles, noting that “the magic happens” outside of your comfort zone.  For this trip, we knew that we were going to rely on the generosity of spirit in the strangers that we'd encounter, and that for most of this time we’d be in situations that we’d never been in before.  We both committed to pushing ourselves and each other to try to dig below the surface, and as we’ve felt already, this often happens outside of our comfort zone.   

That said, we’ve been rewarded greatly with unexpected magic as soon as we jumped in.    

Wandering through the large, crowded public market, we found the fetish stands, where all manner of dried, preserved, and otherwise dead animals are sold for animist ceremonies.  Traditional religions here play alongside with the overwhelming influence of Muslim and Christian converts, and Malians seem to blend the faiths without much concern or fanfare. 

We met up with our old friend from Dakar (read: met him once) who was just assigned a post at the Senegalese Embassy in Bamako.  Being the jovial sort, we popped in to his office at the Embassy, and then were whisked away to his house for beers and to an amazing dinner dished into a communal bowl in his neighbor's driveway.   Then it was off to hear local music with a diva griot and three back up dancers to boot.  It was a great night of good food, good company, and the amazing music for which Mali is known.

 

Amidst the fertile Niger River basin, welcoming people, and interesting culture, lies another city than what first meets the eye. At 1.8 million people, Bamako is estimated to be the fastest growing city in Africa, and the 6th fastest in the world. In the next 20 years, the population is expected to double. This uncontrolled growth has already and will further cause significant difficulties: overcapacity in educational institutions, poor sanitation, limited water supplies, traffic, and the aforementioned pollution. Already, one in five Malian children die before the age of five. (Read that sentence again slowly.) 

Without the infrastructure to meet the demands of the growing population, we can only imagine that Bamako’s existing urban sprawl will transform into dilapidated buildings and large slums needing even greater aid for basic human services.   

We're rooting for you, Bamako.