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In the post Road to Segou, I concluded with us retiring to the river for some pizza and quiet night life.  Before shoveling down our pizza, my travel buddy and I went down to the shore and passed some time just relaxing.  While he put-a-shout-out to friends via facebook,  I wandered around capturing images of Niger River nightlife.  The sun set early because of a meterological phenomenon called “Harmattan” that had created a dirt red haze on the horizon.

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Douane Stop

Segou is a historically important city.  It served as the capitol city for the Bambara Empire and the French Colonial era.  Since Mali’s success on the international music stage, the city has become popular for its annual music festival where musicians perform just off shore on a special barge.  To get there, we left the capitol city of Bamako and headed northeast and arrived in Segou about 3 hrs. later.  The road to Segou is peppered with douane stops where a small toll is collected for the privilege of continuing on.  These stops are opportunities for travelers to buy food and drink from the local women who offer prepared snacks for sale.

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"Democracy Now" (on left) and "To dare to fight is to dare to conquer" (on right)

The spirit of a people

Tribute to the Martyrs - "B" side

So why does Mali matter, anyway?  I think a stable country on a volatile continent is something significant and worth paying attention to.  On a personal level though, I am inspired by the events that took place on Mali’s road to independence.  It is a testimony in our time of a people fighting for their voice to be heard and their eventual triumph over years of injustice.  Yet none of this was brought on by any external influence or power.  Rather, it is the spirit of the Malian people and their desire to govern themselves that sparked the events of that fateful Friday in 1991 …  read more »

GIANT MAP OF MALI (yes, that's me)

Oh the confusion!

The location of the West African country of Mali is little known.  When I try to explain where Mali is, most people have never heard of it.  Sometimes it helps to make it clear where Mali is not.  The name that comes to the mind of many is the tropical island of Maui, one of the Hawaiian Islands.  Mali is not Maui.  It ain’t Malawi either. Incredibly enough, even some post offices around the world haven’t heard of Mali.  The people I know who live there tell stories of mail being lost for weeks because it was first routed to the country of Malawi — a different African country more than 3500 miles away! read more »