Dionfacourou: An overview

Dionfacourou "North" at sunset.  The tree in the foreground is a baby Baobob

Excuse any obvious information to those of you familiar with African history.  Even after being here, though, I still find there is so little I know.  We didn't learn most of these things when I was in school...

Dionfacourou is a village of about 2000 people(so they say...I put it more around 800 tops).  The name literally translates to "the mountain where the slaves are sold."  Not slaves to the white man as you may imagine, but slaves within West Africa.  Not anymore, but ways back there was a local slave trade.  

If you are looking at a map of Mali, go west of Bamako and find Kita.  Go just west of that about 60km and you will come upon Dionfacourou on the way to Manantali.  The landscape is like most of inhabited Mali, as you will see below.  Dry, barren and not unlike parts of Arizona/Nevada/So Cal.

Ok, well thats just some of it.  Dionfacourou actually has some taller trees in its midst that provide more shade.  Also, as you can see above, its mostly circular mud huts in the stereotypical sense although some of them are painted with some simple designs that you may see in some later photos.  Its located near the Bafing reserve, a protected area and one of the few places you'll still find a fair amount of wildlife, well, at least the kind you'd imagine in Africa: lions, hyenas, etc.

The people in this part of Mali are largely Malinke.  The Malinke speak a language similar to Bambara(what Ian and I use here in Bamako on a daily basis) as it is the root language of many languages in West Africa.  Depending on who I was talking to, we could sometimes understand each other.  The area is also, historically, one of great political activity and resistance.  These guys fought hard against the French.  There are all sorts of stories...The dugutiki, or mayor of the village is Ian's teacher's father.  He is an incredible 90 year old sweetheart who hangs out in the shade all day while people come to him for counsel on various matters.  His "spot" was right in front of our bathroom, so we always had some good chats with him.  Ian found out one night on the way back that he was buddies and activists with Modibo Keita and Leopold Senghor, heavy hitters in the Independence movement in West Africa.  I'd Google them, if I were you, to find out more.  They were incredible folk...

They do two major things, in Dionfacourou, that I can gather.  They grow peanuts and a few other things, and they hunt.  I have to admit I did neither when I was there...but I did enjoy the company of some great hunters and I did eat some of the best peanut sauce I've ever had.