Recent Ramblings

This month I had the opportunity to meet up with some PC volunteers from Benin to do some traveling in Mali and Senegal. Here are some snapshots and highlights.

Segou Music Festival

This year the Malian town of Segou held it's 6th annual Festival Sur le Niger, which is probably the single most important event for showcasing Mali's rich music culture and world-class artists. The festival took place over almost an entire week, each day ending with a headlining concert whose stage was actually a float on the Niger river. (For those of you from Chatty, it kind of reminded me of Riverbend.)

Dakar, Senegal

After Segou and a short sejour in Bamako we headed to Senegal. It's capital, Dakar, blew me away with its urban development, tall builings, cliffside seascapes, and great restaurants. Dakar has an interesting culture all its own: worldly and sophisticated residents, an African language (Woloff) quite unlike others I've heard before, lively sub-cultures, and the capital West Africa's longest-standing democracy (modern Senegal has never seen a coup d'etat), to point out a few facets of this city.

Goree Island, Senegal

Goree Island is just off Dakar, and was one of the main slave ports in the 17th and 18th centuries. Today the island is filled with Malian artisans, museums, and winding paths that take you past old colonial buildings, baobab trees, and friendly residents.

Saint Louis, Senegal

Saint Louis is all the way up the Senegal coastline, just shy of the Mauratanian border. Historically it was the French administrative center for all of Francophone West Africa, and the island part of the town contains block after block of interesting architecture.

Toubab Dialo, Senegal

Senegal has some nice beaches--somehow much more picturesque and swimmer-friendly than the kind you'd find on the underside of West Africa in Gulf of Benin.Toubob Dialo was one of these "beach towns." Yes, that's me sweeping the beach.

All my photos from these trips are posted on my Picassa Account Enjoy.

Religious Conflict in Africa's Middle Belt

Nigeria has recently been getting some negative press as the U.S. looks into the personal history of the Christmas Day suicide bomber. This last week Hillary Clinton suggested the country breeds radicalism.

But few people likey caught another headline coming out of Nigeria, also having to do with religious based violence. Last week Jos, Nigeria erupted in violence between the town's Christian and Muslim populations. This rioting razed property all over the town, left over a 200 Christians and Muslims dead, and thousands displaced.

While the story doesn't have any direct connection with international terrorism, it's significant b/c these riots were a reprisal to predecessors taking place in 2001 and 2008, and also symptomatic of other similar Muslim-Christian outbursts that frequently erupt in this part of middle Nigeria, where the Christian populations (mostly in the South) meet the mostly-Hausa Muslim populations from the North. This religious fault line--in general, where Sub-Saharan's Northern Mulsim populations mix with Southern Christians--is sometimes called the "middle belt," and can be said to stretch horizontally across all of Africa.

The Atlantic Monthly published a very interesting expose of this issue last year called "God's Country." Also, last year an Anthropologist Barbara Cooper published a book called Evangelical Christians in the Muslim Sahel which essentially examines a very similar type of religious tension, but this time in southern Niger.

Of course, not the entire middle belt is marred by such thick religious tension. My former post in Northern Benin and my present one in Southern Mali, for example, see the peaceful coexistence of Christians and Muslims. Also, labels like middle belt run the risk of oversimplifiying certain conflicts that also have political competition and resource-control as root causes (i.e. Sudan).

Neverthless, the middle zone is an important area to watch, not least because this trully is one of the world's most impoverished regions. And, as we see more and more, it's also in the interest of international security to identify these kind of hotbeds where poverty thrives, and political-religious radicalism and violence seem to breed. Ultimately the best defense strategy is to address the systematic poverty and to help make these regions thrive.

Reminders from Countries Next Door

It’s amazing how human tragedies can so easily sit as abstract “happenings” in our consciences. Africa has a good share of these, and I’ve found it to be true that even living on the continent it is so easy to forget what may be happening in the next country or village over. I happened to meet a couple people this week who have personalized some of these issues we read about in the news.

Last night some Peace Corps friends introduced me to a twenty-five year old Guinean refugee who in September was one among thousands of Guineans gathered at Conakry Stadium in Guinea’s capital to protest the rumor that the unstable “President” (read: military autocrat) Captain Moussa Dadis Camara’s would “run” (read: rig) in the coming elections. Government supported troops were released on the crowds, resulting in sexual assaults and over a hundread deaths. My Guinean friend said he witnessed all of this, took photos with his cell phone camera, and sadly saw his own friend shot and killed.

A second acquaintance I made this week was of the cousin of some good Malian friends. Another young guy, for the last several years he’s been one of the thousands of desperate West African Africans who annually attempt to illegally migrate into Europe, normally by sea but by other means too. Often these human smuggling attempts end in tragic stories: boats capsizing, drownings, people found dead in airplane the landing gear housings. Motivated by economic desperation and rumors of opportunity, my friend has made multiple attempts, and three formidable ones, for which he had saved (and subsequently lost) a total of about $2,000, a small fortune in local terms. His stories are pretty amazing, and include days at sea in a hand-carved boat, detainments by Spanish authorities, travels by foot across Mauritania and Morocco, and being chased by dogs and airplanes. And he wants to keep trying. Apparently one of the tragedies of such ocean-crossings is that they’re surprising addicting to those who attempt them—despite the danger and the cost.

Some Notoriety for Nigeria's [little] Neighbor

A fellow RPCV from Benin recently passed along some info along about a Freshman forward at Villanova who hails from the North of Benin. Turns Villanova's coach Jay Wright had been trying to scout out a Nigerian player at an AAU tournament when he noticed Mouphtaou Yarou.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/player/profile?playerId=46191
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1162973/index.htm
http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/colleges/villanova/69737552.html

West African Travels Overland

Last week I went to Ghana for a 2-day workshop. The voyage itself ended up lasting 3 times longer than the workshop. Here I am providing a synopsis of my 6-day travel adventure, which is sadly very telling of the extreme exploitation, inefficiency, and lack of organization that characterizes West Africa’s transport system.

Day 1 and 2 of Travel: Bamako, Mali to Accra, Ghana

Total bus time: 40 hours
Total time waiting in bus station: 3 hours

Misadventures:

- Bus leaves Bamako station more than 3 hours late.
- During overnight segment of travel, bus kept stopping to either sell fabric, or pay bribes in fabric, I’m not sure which.
- At some point during the night bus backtracks 15 minutes for some unknown reason—at 1 am in the morning it was best not to ask why.
- At Ghana border we’re detained 2 hours. A group of about a dozen Malians had been recruited by Saudi Arabians to go be truck drivers in their country, but their VISAS were expired 2 weeks ago and they had no idea who to contact. After long discussions in a closed room with Ghanian border officials, somehow that Visa problem got cleaned up, minus 2.000 CFA from the pockets of each Malian. I will assume these were official administrative fees.

Day 3 & 4 of Travel: Accra, Ghana to Ougadougou, Burkina Faso

Total Bus Time: 16 hours
Total time waiting in stations: 4 hours

Misadventures:

- In Accra I discover that all the direct buses to Bamako are canceled due to the Tobaski Festival (the biggest holiday in the Muslim holiday), and if I don’t leave immediately it’s likely that I’ll be stuck in Accra until next week.
- Thanksgiving day/night spent on a bus. (Dinner: rice and chicken).
- In Ouga I immediately begin looking for a transfer to Bamako, but nothing: this is Burkina’s national day to celebrate Tobaski.
- I’m promised a direct ride to Bamako the next morning, and for now I’m stranded in Ouga.

Day 5 of Travel: Ougadougou to Bobo, Burkina Faso

Total bus time: 4 hours
Total time waiting in stations: 5.5 hours

Misadventures:

- Nice try: my direct bus to Bamako got no further than Bobo, Burkina Faso. Why? Burkina’s Tobaski was over, but today is Mali’s turn to celebrate its Tobaski, and nothings going in or out of Mali. (Why the West African Umma couldn’t get together and coordinate holidays is beyond me).
- After trying to negotiate with about 10 bus companies and travel options, I concede defeat, and am again promised a direct trip to Bamako the next day.
- I had never heard of Bobo before today, but somehow manage to find a place to spend the night with the family of the sister-in-law of one of the Mali Peace Corps staff members. Thanks Justine.
- Meanwhile throughout the day I hear many other horror studies about TSR, the bus line in question. Turns out they have a company policy of lying/misrepresenting information, leaving people stations for hours/days at a time, selling worthless tickets, and on and on.

Day 6 of Travel: Bobo to Bamako, Mali

Total time: 13 hours
Total time in station: 2.5 hours

Misadventures:

- Turns out there was a whole busload of us who had been lied to/abandoned in Bobo the previous night, each by his or her respective bus line. The next day the bus lines pull together and put us all in one bus for Bamako (nice of them).
- Bus breaks down 3.5 hours from Bamako…I flag down another, pay the remaining fare again to get myself home.

An African Village

I spent my first couple months in Mali living in a village just outside of Bamako. While very much a village as far as amenities go, its significant that the town calls itself a quartier of Bamako, (though its really more than 10km outside the capital)--for the the sprawling town has plenty of city-like issues, especially the side of town I was living in.

The place could not at all retain the "quintissential village quality of being "tranquil." Right behind me: Mali international airport, in front of my house: the main highway going to Cote d’Ivoire, and across the street the villages notorious bar le loisir, whose dealing of alcohol was only one of its many litany of goods and services forbidden by Islam, and in some cases also by the law. The village has lots of trash, dirt (mud, when it rains), no electricity and it was always a half-day affair trying to get clean water. Though the town is relatively close to Bamako and is quite big comapred to other villages, people are very discourage to invest much in the property because the city has not yet gotten around to surveying and registering property lots. Many people commute into town for work and school on a regular basis, and the part of road running in front of my house was a particularly potent reminder of the perils public transportation that most everyone is enslaved to here. On average, about three accidents happen a week in this spot, usually of a "T-bone" quality, usually the fault of the wreckless public transport drivers, and usually very audile from inside my house. The village also seemed particularly poor--a trait emphasized all the more by its proximity to the capital--and most everyone seems to be hardly getting by doing extremely menial jobs (or not), and many, many people steal.

In the end, I moved to a location a bit quieter, a bit closer to my work. Yet it’s interesting how fast a place—or more aptly put, the people in a place—can grow on you. There are lots of people I’ve come to spend regular time w/ this village, and I’ve grown quite fond of them. When I began telling folks of my imminent move, and it was surprisingly sad.

In many ways, this Africa. What I just written explains alot of villages, and alot of lives. The problems are many and veritable, and living and earning a living are a continual trial, no less for the people who born and die here. But these people are wonderful, perhaps even more so because of the difficulty of their lives.

The Beninese Bush in 360 Degrees

If you haven't heard of Confluence Project, check it out. It's a website that hosts entries from all over the world from people who have visited and documented one of the globe's confluence points (where a line of lattitude and longitude intersect).

The small country of Benin happens to have 9 confluence points, most of which were recently documented by my PCV friend Jim Rybarski. "Confluence Hunting" can be a tricky task when you're trailblazing in Africa bush, and documenting Benin involved some failed attempts for a couple sights. Problems include unexpected bodies of water, unreliable roads, unknown terrain, and trying to convince local motorcycle taxis to do the unreasonable (take you into the bush) for a reasonable price. Here is an index of Benin's confluence points.

One of the points happens to be not 40 km (as the crow flies) from my own Benin town, Nikki. You can get a 360 degree idea of the place here as well as get a synopsis of the couple attempts to locate the point. While I didn't personally make it to the point, I accompanied Jim in his first attempt, which on the day was eventually given up after a decent ammount of meandering in the bush and realizing reaching the target would mean walking in uncharted terrain at least 10km.