Day 4: The Monday market in Djenné: Kola nuts, dried fish and salt.
The car came to pick us up early to drive us all the way to Djenné (200 km) – a city made entirely out of mud (UNESCO world heritage site). We stopped in Sevaré and bought more boxes of water as it was hot and we were going through water fast.

(The monday market in Djenné!)

The market was in full swing when we got to Djenné. The sight of the market against the backdrop of the huge mud-mosque dazzles me every time I come to Djenné. At the market in Djenné you can get Kola nuts from the Ivory Coast, salt from the salt mines in the Sahara desert (that comes down in camel caravans), millet and sorghum from the plains, and dried fish from the Niger River. Robbie loved the dried fish section and begged us to walk past it again and again because he liked the smell.

(Kids learning the Koran).


(The grand mosqué all made of mud)

Djenné is the meeting spot of people coming from the North and from the South. A mix of ways of dress, languages, trades, ... I love it. I feel like I’ve gone back in time. This same scene greeted the first French when they came here over 100 years ago. Our guides later took us on a tour of the city and told us of the history highlighted by the conversion to Islam, the Moroccan invasion and colonization by the French. Something that you could find at the market in the past, but not today, is slaves and ivory. They have got Chinese imported clothes now, though. We fell asleep on mats on the roof with a view of the mosque.