Back again...

Going back to Djenné brings  a series of events with dependable regularity- some of these I remember and take in my stride: they are just part of my homecoming, such as the pedicure of my horse. Petit Bandit has not been ridden for some time and his hooves need looking after. Old Malik is called and he ambles over  with his tool bag and gets it done- but this year I noticed he needs supervision because he seems to be  going blind...

Other events I tend to strike from my memory every time because they are so very irritating: one such is the lack of dill. Now, I did give Boubakar the gardener a bag of best English Dill seeds when I left and told him that if there was one thing only he did while I was away this would be the thing to concentrate on.  But alas no dill just as usual...

It is hard here now. I knew it would be. The underlying problem is of course  that Keita will never come back and that fact makes everything else less bearable...the slow degradation of my environment here and the encroachment of the neighbourhood with its sights and noises is  affecting me more than usual:  a blacksmith seems to have moved in next door but one and he bangs and files away as blacksmiths do. He also  starts and stops a very noisy generator at every moment I sit down to try and enjoy the peace of my breakfast under the flambuoyant tree or the peaceful view at sunset of the mosque in the distance with the football playing youths in front of it, nursing my Djenné Djenno Cocktail. This very view has been  severely damaged lately by the fact that our neighbour on the other side, the Ecole Franco Arabe has decided to build a great big ugly cement school there, right in  my field of vision in front of the Mosque. Now, I do not object to schools, but there was no need to put this school here especially since it is impossible to reach it  during two months or more  after the rainy season when the plain is inundated! The lack of municipal building control and any kind of town planning is quite scary.

Talking of such matters UNESCO had a meeting yesterday in Istanbul I believe where they discussed the World Heritage sites and the decision was made to put “the Towns of Djenné “ on the list of those World Heritage sites which are considered to be in peril.https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/14/old-towns-of-djenne-precious-mud-village-could-disappear-unesco-warns They identified  the “peril” to be the the growing insecurity in the region and a Jihadist threat.  I do agree that the town is in peril but for other reasons. The UNESCO rules for the town states that cement is not to be used in construction but the ancient methods of mud architecture for which Djenné is famous should be upheld.

Now, the threat to the town is certainly very real but not so much because of the perceived insecurity as from the lack of interest in the locals AND the authorities to maintain the ancient building traditions.

Cement is encroaching everywhere, replacing mud, even in the center of Djenné. It is not the first time I mention, as the most prominent example, the enormous new 'Maison des Artisans' which was built recently totally in cement which was then covered with a thin layer of mud like the icing on a cake with funding from Denmark and the cooperation of the Malian government.   

This serious breach against UNESCO's rules for the town has unleashed a whole series of cement buildings in Djenné: why should the locals have to build in mud goes the argument, when even the government and foreign investors like the Danes do not? In the wake of this gigantic  cement edifice in the heart of Djenne a whole plethora of new ‘pretend’ mud structures have sprung up since it is now a free for all here and no one in authority is willing to stop the river of cement pouring in to Djenné. 

This building below  is a new abattoir bang in the middle of town financed by the European Union through the ‘Conseil Regionale de Mopti’, a local government body . There is flagrant hypocrisy here and Djenné will be destroyed not by any Jihadists or 'insecurity' but by the lack of commitment in those who are in charge and should know better.