Disclaimer:

The opinions presented in this blog are my own and may not necessarily reflect those of the Peace Corps

Monday, November 28, 2011

Largest Minority

I am back at Peace Corps training center near Mali's capital city, Bamako.  I have completed the two weeks of In Service Training and am all set up to head back to my village and get started on projects.  But I can't.  One murder and several kidnappings have recently occured in northern Mali and I have been asked to hang out in Bamako a little longer to wait for the terrorist activity to settle down.  Kinda weird and scary, but at least it gives me a chance to write about something I have been thinking about a lot: the Fula people.

Mali has an incredible amount of cultural diversity.  Mali's struggle to develope has preserved a variety of lifestyles that would have otherwise been drastically changed by globalization.  There are 40 or more languages and maybe 20 different ethnicities.  In the states I recognize minorities based mainly on physical appearance, but in Mali it takes a trained eye (and ear) to distinguish one ethnicity from another.  For me, it is very hard not to look at someone here and simply think of them as Malian. 

The one exception are the Fula (also known as Peul or Fulani), West Africa's largest minority.  They are especially prevelant in Mali's Mopti region.  Several Fula live near my village and I interact with them daily.  Since they are quite distinct in appearance and are a very large minority in my area, I have learned not only how to recognize them but also how to greet them in their own language.

The Fula have a culture very distinct from any other African ethnicity.  Though they can be found throughout West Africa, they do not represent a majority anywhere.  At 17% though, they are a large minority and play an important role in the ethnic dynamics of the country.  The Fula are stubborn towards change which results in a very unusual way of life.  They hardly speak Bambara or Dogon languages and few of them have given up on their traditional semi nomadic way of life.  I find them both intimidating and fascinating.

A Fula individual can be distinguished from the Dogon in my area based on certain physical characteristics.  The have narrower faces and skinnier noses.  Fulani skin tone is a few shades lighter than the very dark Dogon people.  Fulani men do not constantly shave their heads they way most men in my village do and the Fulani women can let their braids get quite long.  Lastly, scarification and mouth tattoos are very common in a Fulani face. 


The fula also have a unique style of dress.  The man above has a traditional Fula hat and traditional dress.  Women have an excessive amount of jewelry.

I think it is great that I can recognize a Fulani, but it is not only they way they look that is interesting, it is also the way they live.  The most important characteristic about the Fula is that they are semi nomadic.  There are Fulani villages, but they are for the most part temporary.  Their straw houses are simple and can be easily erected and abondoned.  As they wander the wilds of Dogon they herd goats, sheep, and cattle.  When I go on hikes I will always come across a herding Fulani.  The women spend their days going into villages or markets selling the product of herding animals: Milk.  The Fulani around my village come in often to greet and sell me milk or yogurt.  Its a great perk when I run out of powder milk.

The relationship between Dogon and Fulani seems to be relaxed.  They hang out in my village with my family and friends a lot.  They like to make fun of eachother in a healthy way.  Nearly everyone in my village speaks the Fula language as a second language (making Bambara the third most common language in my village and French, Mali's official language, only the 4th most common language in my village).  However, my site mate Zacharia once witnessed a fight break out between a Fulani man and a bus driver (who I think was from Niger).  He described that fight as a Fulani group on one side of the fight and a Dogon group on the other side.  It made me wonder about racism in Mali and to what degree it affects the lives of minority ethnicities such as the Fulani.

To be a minority in Africa is very different than being a minority in the States.  People from all over the world live in America, but of course our westernizing influences are strong so in a strange way we are very diverse and homogenous at the same time.  So many different backgrounds and races exist in the States, but I feel as though third generation Chinese, and a third generation Mexican have almost everything in common; that is, they are both very American.  In Mali it seems to be the opposite.  Everyone is black and African and whatever, but cultures do not blend into any kind of encompassing Malian or African standard.  Because of this it is very hard to compare the Fula to Minorities in the States.  America's largest minority are Hispanics (the title once belonged to African Americans), but I would think that it is very difficult for a Hispanic in America to relate to a Fula in Africa when it comes to matters of ethnicity, identity, and racism.

The funny thing about all this is that I myself, living in a Dogon village, am a minority.  But I feel that I am such an extreme example of a different culture living within a majority culture that it almost doesn't count.  Especially since my life as a Peace Corps volunteer is temporary. 

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Public Transport

Public transport really sucks in Mali.  It is hard to move around this country for many reasons.  


  1. The schedules are unorganized:  You generally buy a ticket and wait for enough other people to buy tickets for a driver to decide that it is worth it to start up the bus.  I have waited 5 hours before.    
  2. The vehicles are falling apart:  Due to breakdowns I have had to wait for repairs and switch buses.  I have also helped push vehicles in order to get them to start.
  3. Its hot: Africa is even sweatier inside a crammed bus
  4. Roads suck:  Paved roads aren't too common.  And those that do exist are narrow and poorly maintained.
  5. Drivers don't drive well:  I would go as far as to call many of them reckless.  It can be scary.  
  6. There is no room:  The more a driver/vehicle owner can cram into his bus the more profit he thinks he can make.  Its not just a matter of people but what they are bringing with them.  Goats, Sheep, chickens, animal skins, lumber, and food for market take up much more room then people themselves.  The other day I saw a live cow trying to be squeezed into the trunk of a small car.  I laughed for awhile
So far I've always made it to where I need to get (maybe not by the day I expected to be there by) but every Peace Corps volunteer here seems to have their fair share of public transport stories.  With each story I'm sure my dislike for Public transport has the potential to worsen, but a fondness for the craziness that is Mali will grow.

Dogon Landscape Album

It is the beginning of November as I write this and the weather is starting to cool off a little bit.  The nights are cool, the crops are being harvested, and the tourists are starting to trickle in.  There are not many.  Mali is not your typical vacation destination, but there are those people out there who have heard of Mali's hidden treasures.  Some come for the music, others to see the largest mud building in the world, and others to experience the amazing diversity of language and culture that the many ethnicities of Mali have to offer.  There are also those that come to see a cliff.

The Bandiagara Cliff Band is not only one of most defining features of the Dogon physical landscape, but also of the cultural landscape because of the way humans have used it throughout history.  The cliffs get massive!  And the villages around the Cliffs are enchanting to say the least.  The best part is that my house is on one of the (smaller) cliffs.  They run from my village towards the Northwest in fairly continously.  A month ago I hiked along the cliffs from my village to another volunteer's village on the (much bigger) cliffs.  My friend Ashley documented the 2 day trip with the beautiful pictures below.  The pictures can give you a better idea of my life in Dogon culture as well as give a glimpse to the beauty of Mali that most overlook.

The path to my village.  Only 2 or 3 miles from a nice paved road.  The women are taking lunch out to the people working the fields, taking a sheep out to to probably graze or something I guess, and also watching their babies.  Busy life.

My neighborhood.  The far left is my house but you can't really see it.  It is nicer than most houses in that I have a cement floor and a latrine.  Most don't have cement floors and practically the entire village does not have a latrine (a polite way of saying they poop in the fields).

I was never someone who 'likes kids' back in the States.  Mali is changing that.


Peanuts are being harvested now so it adds some nice flavor (and protein) to my diet.  It is also awesome to see how the harvesting, and storing and preparing of foods is done.  In the states I had not idea what my food looked like before it reached the grocery store...  
...These structures are a major feature in Mali's cultural landscape.  Food is stored in them.
...Doing hikes here usually involves seeing the herders out getting their animals fed.
Here women pound millet as part of a meal's preparation.  These women seemed to have a fun time doing it singing songs and keeping beat with each pound.



 
Wells are not easy to build in my area.  Fortunately a couple springs flow from under the rocks and cliffs.   This scene shows the importance of this single spring for a village nearby mine.  The women walk down from the village to wash cloths, wash themselves, and fetch water...
...Then they walk a couple miles on this path to bring water back to there households for cooking and for their husbands.  This is done more than once per day!!

 
One of the four mosques in my village.  I think my village is pretty muslim by Dogon standards, but I feel like there are probably a lot of Animist perceptions diluting the religious believes of my village.
 A mosque in another village.


Water:  A scarce resource.
We experienced a short storm at one point of hiking and for a very brief period water seemed to be plentiful. 
A classic Postcard Pic of Dogon country.  Notice the buildings that are literally under the cliff! 

Cool pictures, yes?  Next time I try to make an album I might try to show some pictures of friends and stuff in my village...   But first I had been wanting to share the beauty that I have the previlege to experience.  Also all the photos are credit to my friend Ashley.  I did not take a single one of these pictures.