Introducing Baba

The next morning we got ready to meet Ahmoud, our guide for next few days, but before we could rendezvous (fluent already!) with him there was a knock at the door of our dorm. Enter Baba, another guide, who said that Ahmoud had sent him to take us on the trek as Ahmoud's car had broken down. Believable or not? After talking with Baba for about 15 minutes about the route, the cost, which villages we would be staying in and what the trek would involve, we decided that we would have to take up Baba as a guide; we would waste another day at least finding another guide and were set on going that morning. Baba didn't have a guide's official card because he'd forgotten it, but seemed to be pretty knowledgeable about the Dogon area.

We left our huge bags with the nuns (if you can't trust them...) jumped into a sept-place, which was reasonably comfortable as there were the correct number of people in the car, and drove to the market town of Bandiagara, where we had to change into another car for the last leg to the village of Djigibombo, awesome name and the start for all treks on the south of the escarpment. Let me explain a bit about Dogon Country (the generic name for the far south-east corner of Mali).

The escarpment, or falaise, is a line of sheer cliffs, 500m in height, that runs for about 150km, with a drop to a vast plain heading towards Burkina Faso. The Dogon people (group name for about 400,000 people) used to live in mud huts built high into the cliff face, to protect themselves from predators and enemies. Djigibombo is a village in the far south of the escarpment (or falaise), set up on the plateau about 3km from the cliff's edge.

Baba took us on a little walk around Djigibombo (it's a name that makes you smile isn't it!), and gave us a basic overview of all things Dogon. We passed a lot of small, one-storey, thatched-roof granaries, where the staple crop of millet is stored, and also saw the justice house (built low to the ground so that people cannot stand up and get angry) and menstruation huts (where the women are sent at that time of the month till they are 'better').

The Dogon are principally animist, a religion that requires sacrifices and ancient rituals to appease the gods. Although most Dogon villages now have either a mosque or a church, most villagers see themselves as animist first, and then whichever other religion afterwards. Animism is one of man's oldest beliefs, essentially believing that souls live on after death in other beings, and so there must be certain rituals before a deceased person's soul can be released. The practices are pretty fascinating, but there is too much for me to write at length here - give it a google.

After walking around the village, and being followed by a gaggle of semi-naked children, we followed Baba on a walk out of Djigibombo, down the main road towards the falaise. Followed is definitely the correct word to use, as Baba sped off on a mission from the word go, and barely slowed in three days!