Monday, November 2, 2009

Mali south of Bamako, near Kangaba

Here are some photos from the some of the villages!

Just south of Bamako about two hours or more there are several wonderful villages I just returned from visiting. Going to each place I was lured in and swallowed by the endless beauty of the countryside. Truly I can imagine just bicycling around Mali for months at a time. It's the same beautiful countryside as in the American South where I live, but unchecked by powerlines, roads, and cities just over the horizon. It's like if the South just stretched out. Past burning crosses, lynchings, urabanity and modern agriculture on into pure beauty where there's just really kind black folk, with lots of beautiful clothes, or just beautiful selves. Then inside the village the stories... did you know there are magic little people with backwards feet who live near and in villages in Southern Mali. Just like in Ghana! There are also tall people who are sometimes invisible, magic spirit snakes and roosters, sacred trees, woods, hills and caverns. My goodness... an enchanted world, full of real hardships, smiling children, snot with no tissue, and bathing in the clear blue open air.

I'll have to write a bit more about my trip when I get the chance because I'm on a boomerang trip right back and leaving town tomorrow. I've found some Blacksmiths who say they'll teach me about there culture. I'll be living with them for a few days, visiting Degela and it's sacred trees and woods, going back and smithing again, and then catching and annual warrior festival where people sit on hot coals, stick pokers through their tongues and show themselves to be unconquerable on every level. I can tell you in short that what separates Blacksmithing in this region from what I've learned in the States is the endless history, the rich folklore, and non-western ways of learning. People refer to folks who died a thousand years ago as if they were around yesterday, thousand tree old trees are part of daily life and animals and little people something like elves show up in dreams, nighttime, and while you are wide awake to give life altering knowledge, power, or possibly a fright! The richness is encrusted onto the things people do here and blacksmithing is no different. It is a thick layering of magic and wonder where fiction lives, and life is not stuck to the ground thus the imagination may fly and you may just find yourself witnessing the impossible. Everyday and everywhere I hear claims of superhuman possibilities, even witnessed an interesting thing myself. Maybe I'll tell you about it in a few.

2 comments:

  1. Cool. When does the annual warrior festival take place?

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  2. It takes place in late December apparently and I'm not sure I'll be able to make it sadly. I wonder though... I may try to make it happen. Dude also said though that it might be in early January. Couldn't do that one.

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