A multiethnic mix of Muslim worshipers file out of Djenné’s Great Mosque after Friday morning prayers - Niger River inland delta, central Mali, West Africa. High resolution Noritsu Koki film scan, Asahi Pentax SP Spotmatic, (SMC Pentax Zoom 45~125mm f/4), circa 1976.
The mosque is considered the world’s largest adobe building and one of the greatest achievements of Sudano-Sahelian architecture, unique to the semi-arid Sahel zone that stretches across northern Africa just south of an encroaching Sahara.
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© National Geographic Yourshot (Editor's Favourite, May 2018). Story and assignment: “While on a Walk.”
A Dogon woman with calabash carrying bowls makes her way across the rugged crest of the Bandiagara escarpment in central Mali, West Africa.
She is on a long weekly trek to market that begins in one of the small adobe villages nestled among giant boulders at the base of the sandstone escarpment. Ancient walking trails that connect the villages in the sandy semi-desert plains below ultimately converge at a steep and stony staircase on the cliff’s sheer face leading to the market on the escarpment plateau.
The Bandiagara escarpment and its rocky scree has transformed over the centuries into a vast cultural landscape consisting of huge sandstone rock slabs riddled with holes, faults, burial caves, rock shelters and secluded adobe villages embedded in cavities high on the steep cliffside.
Noritsu Koki QSS-31 digital film scan, Asahi Pentax Spotmatic (SMC Pentax Zoom 45~125mm f/4), circa 1976. expl#28
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Peul (Fulani, Fulbe, Fula) herder and nobleman with traditional wide-brimmed fibre-and-leather conical hat, headed to the weekly market outside Djenné's Great Mosque, Niger River inland delta, central Mali, West Africa.
This Peul herdsman is likely from the class of “free nobles” (mostly nomadic herders, religious and political leaders, some tradesmen and sedentary cultivators) at the top of a highly stratified caste-based Peul society.
Ethnographers distinguish this class from lower-tiered occupational groups or “castes” (griot story tellers and song-praisers, artisans, blacksmiths, potters, woodworkers, dress makers) and descendants of slaves (labourers, brick makers, house builders).
Digital film scan, Asahi Pentax Spotmatic (SMC Pentax Zoom 45~125mm f/4), shot directly under the noonday sun, circa 1976. explore#23
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Passengers are greeted as cargo is unloaded from a Peugeot bush taxi or taxi-brousse in front of the Great Mosque in Djenné, an ancient trading town and center of Muslim scholarship strategically situated in the Inland Niger Delta region of Central Mali, West Africa.
While travel by shared bush taxi is slow, uncomfortable, and prone to breakdowns, it can be a highly entertaining experience and remains an essential mode of travel throughout the region.
Bush taxis of this kind tend to leave only when they are fully occupied. That can take several hours to a full tedious day of waiting before departure. They are known n to break down with an excess of passengers and cargo. My ride in the back of this small pickup was shared with nine or ten crammed passengers, several sacks of millet on the cargo floor, and a clutch of clucking chickens.
Djenné’s grand mosque is considered the world’s largest adobe building and one of the greatest achievements of Sudano-Sahelian architecture, unique to the semi-arid Sahel zone that stretches across northern Africa just south of an encroaching Sahara.
~~~
Postrscript - Nowadays, easy access to markets, pastures, and farmlands is hampered as ethnic strife and inter-communal violence continue to erupt under a fragile Malian state with a troubled history of military coups.
Chronic insecurities around the ancient town of Djenné and the central regions of Mali are fuelled by longstanding indigenous concerns over the struggle for scarce natural resources - agricultural land for settled farmers versus water and grazing land for semi-nomadic Peul herdsmen.
Recruitment among Peul (Fulani, Fulbe, Fula) herding communities by armed Islamist groups has escalated tensions in the sedentary agrarian communities (Bambara, Dogon, Tellem, Bozo, and others) who rely on access to agricultural lands for their livelihood.
The current military junta now relies on hired mercenaries from the private Russian-backed Wagner Group for its security needs, coinciding with the recent French withdrawal of troops from the region.
By providing protection to the Malian military regime, the Moscow-centred paramilitary group has increased its power and access to Mali's valued natural resources. These events in Mali and elsewhere around the world are relevant to the current war in eastern Europe.
Noritsu Koki QSS-31 digital film scan, shot with an Asahi Pentax Spotmatic (SMC Pentax Zoom 45~125mm f/4), circa 1976. expl#41
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Peul noblewoman (Fulani, Fulbe, Fula) with tattooed lips and gold earrings from a semi-nomadic pastoral settlement in the Hombori region of central Mali, part of the semi-arid Sahel zone that stretches across northern Africa just south of an encroaching Sahara. High resolution Noritsu Koki slide scan, Asahi Pentax SP Spotmatic, (SMC Pentax Zoom 45~125mm f/4), circa 1976.
Peul women of this region often tattoo their lips, gums and the area around the mouth before marriage, a painful aesthetic practice and rite of passage signifying marital status.
The extravagant gold earrings or "kwottenai kanye" symbolize the wealth and prestige of a husband or family based largely on the ownership of cattle among the semi-nomadic pastoral Peul of this region.
The earrings are also an aesthetic symbol of cultural pride and identity, usually passed on as a gift from a husband to his wife or an heirloom to a daughter on the death of her mother.
The large earrings are made by local smiths or artisans concentrated mostly in the Mopti region of central Mali. They are crafted from a 14-karat bar of gold that is first chiseled and heated over a fire, then hammered into thin blades and twisted into a four-lobe shape.
This proud and elegant Peul woman is likely from the class of “free nobles” (mostly nomadic herders, religious and political leaders, some tradesmen and sedentary cultivators) at the top of a highly stratified caste-based Peul society.
Ethnographers distinguish this class from lower-tiered occupational groups or hereditary “castes” (griot story tellers and song-praisers, artisans, blacksmiths, potters, woodworkers, dress makers) and descendants of slaves (labourers, brick makers, house builders).
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