Many of you have probably heard about the recent events in Mali. On November 24th, two French geologists were kidnapped in Hombori, a town near the border of Burkina Faso. They are the first foreigners to ever be kidnapped in Mali south of the Niger River. Hombori is only about a five-hour drive from Djenné. A day later, on November 25th, armed men took four tourists from a restaurant in downtown Timbuktu, killed one of them when he refused to get in their car, and took off into the desert with the other three. If you want to read more about it, here's the BBC article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15895908.
Needless to say, this is a disaster for the entire country. Timbuktu is obviously not the secure city that everyone has been told it is. It will take years for tourists to begin to trickle back north. Even Djenné is in the red zone for some consulates. Campements, tour companies, restaurants, museums, maybe even Cultural Missions throughout the whole country will be forced to close. Even Bamako - far to the south and safe - will get hit hard. This city is only a base for tourists as they begin their journeys north to Djenné, Hombori, Mopti, Gao, Timbuktu... There are rumors of postponed elections and civil war in the future. It's a crazy time, and it's the beginning of a very hard period for the Malian people.
Our excavation is off. Pete realized that five minutes after we heard the news, when he called one of his friends in Timbuktu and he told us how bad the situation was. Camping in the desert two hours outside of the city would be the worst possible decision right now. So we have spent the past five days trying to figure out what to do with ourselves now.
Pete is staying here, hoping to do some reconnaissance south of Bamako to find another site he could potentially write his dissertation on. Wade is trying to get a Mauritanian visa so he can drive up to Morocco with Chris, one of our friends from the Camel who has a van. From there he'll make his way to Paris, and then fly home. Kirsten is trying to figure out whether she could still do the survey in Djenné. The only financially possible way of doing the survey is to camp in the countryside outside of the city, right where she's working. But doing that is not smart or safe right now. She may be heading home soon as well. I've become a pseudo "assistant" for Matt, the owner of the Sleeping Camel, who is giving a three-week tour of Ghana, Togo, and Benin. He offered to let me hop on the bus, and we leave tomorrow at 4:00 am! I'm so excited, I can't believe how lucky this is. Matt is the man.
So yeah, that's the situation as it is right now. Mali - and Malian archaeology - just received a sharp kick in the pants, and it will take a while to recover. I only hope that the people who live here - the people we've grown to love and respect - will make it through the next few years okay.
I will continue to post when I can, and let you know what's going on with everything and everyone.
No comments:
Post a Comment