Tour Highlights:
- Fabulous Music concerts - Festival sur le Niger
- Exotic Timbuktu - Visit the Tuaregs in the Sahara!
- Dye workshop with famous textile designer
- Jenne-Jeno, a fascinating archaeological site
- Mudcloth-painting class, Museum visits
- Other unique artistic and cultural experiences
- Dogon Country villages - meet the people
- Mopti waterfront market and mosques.
BEYOND MUDCLOTH: CLOTH AND CULTURE OF MALI
January 26 - February 9, 2009
FLEXIBLE ITINERARY
NOTE: Group is accompanied on entire itinerary by French- and English- speaking textile expert, Cynthia LeCount Samake, and her husband Barou Samake, who speaks English, French, and Bambara. Barou’s hometown is Segou and we will meet his family and friends and enjoy traditional meals and music with them.
Day 0 Monday January 26
(Fly to Bamako from USA) ARRIVE Bamako.
This is the day to arrive, to fly into Bamako, but often the planes arrive this evening late Monday night or very early Tuesday morning, so you will be met at the airport and transported to the hotel to sleep until TUESDAY morning around 9 am. when we’ll all meet at breakfast. (No meals included Monday.)
Hotel Djenne or similar, BAMAKO.
Day 1 Tuesday January 27
(You might actually arrive in the wee hours this morning and sleep until breakfast.) We will have a leisurely breakfast and then go to the market while we are still fresh. We will go through the part of the market where colorful stacks and stacks of already-dyed fabrics are sold. This will inspire us with the possibilities for our creations! We will also meet dyers and cloth stitchers, and buy white damask cloth, called bazin, for our dye workshop tomorrow. For more inspiration and to see techniques, we visit a textile school where women learn to dye the bazin.
Hotel Djenne or similar, BAMAKO.
Day 2 Wednesday January 28
Dye workshop in the morning for those interested—with crew who will help us pattern and tie our cloth for dyeing. Lunch with the dyer friends and family. Anyone not interested will have the option of other activities in town, visiting markets, etc—or relax at the hotel. Visits to arts & crafts market to see masks, weavings and sculpture.
Hotel Djenne or similar, BAMAKO.
Day 3 Thursday January 29.
Visit National Museum and have lunch at the café there.
Visit a master Marionette maker in his studio. Visit Muso Kunda, Museum- Women’s Costume in late afternoon if there is time.
Hotel Djenne or similar, BAMAKO.
Day 4 Friday January 30
MUSIC FESTIVAL “Sur Le Niger”
Drive BAMAKO to Segou, (240km) 4+ hours with stops for baobab trees and market villages along the way. Visit ancient and colonial sections of Segou. See daytime activities associ- ated with music festival—arts & crafts market, dancing, etc. Music at night.
Night in SEGOU; Mivera hotel.
Day 5 Saturday January 31
MUSIC FESTIVAL “SUR LE NIGER”
During the day: Pirogue ride on the Niger River to visit Bozo people who live on other side of river. Women make ceramics from local clay, using an age-old and very interesting process. Afternoon: daytime activities associated with music festival—arts & crafts market, dancing, etc. Lunch at restaurant overlooking the Niger River. Dinner, then music festival until midnight-2 am—as long as you can last!
Night in SEGOU; Mivera Hotel.
Day 6 Sunday February 1
Drive to San to visit mudcloth artist friend and see him and his artist/workers painting and dyeing in backyard workshop. Continue to Djenne, UNESCO World Heritage site.
Djenné, the oldest known city in sub-Saharan Africa is situated on the floodlands of the Niger and Bani rivers. Djenne was founded by merchants around 800 AD (near Jenne-Jeno, the site of an older city dating from 250 BC, which we will also visit tomorrow). Between 1591 and 1780, the town was controlled by Moroccan kings. In addition to its commercial importance, Djenné was also known as a center of Islamic learning and pilgrimage, attracting students and pilgrims from all over West Africa. Its Great Mosque dominates the large market square of Djenné.
The town is now an agricultural trade center, with several beautiful examples of Muslim architecture, including the Great Mosque. The enormous mosque is the largest mud brick (banko) structure in the world and a fine example of Sudanese architecture. Non-Muslims are not allowed inside but we can go onto the roof of a nearby house for a good overall view. Some architecture in town still shows the Moroccan influence, with decorated shutters.
Visit village of strip cloth weavers outside of town; Peuhl women here wear huge twisted gold earrings.
Night in Hotel Tapama; DJENNE.
Day 7 Monday February 2
See market, then see the museum of Jenne-Jeno. Continue out to the ancient archaeological site where millions of pottery shards attest to a large population around 250 BC when the town was founded.
Drive to Mopti- 2 hours. Have a cold drink at a riverside restaurant. Optional: Visit a high school where friends teach—perhaps bring some books (or National Geographics) or school supplies to donate.
Hotel Doux Reves; MOPTI
Day 8 Tuesday February 3
Early flight to Timbuktu, visit town, library of ancient manuscripts and mosques. In 1990 Timbuktu was inscribed on the World Heritage List and UNESCO established a conservation program to safeguard the city.
From UNESCO information: “Timbuktu was founded around 1100 AD as a camp for its proximity to the Niger River. Caravans quickly began to haul salt from mines in the Sahara Desert to trade for gold and slaves brought along the river from the south. By 1330, Timbuktu was part of the powerful Mali Empire, which controlled the lucrative gold-salt trade routes in the region. Two centuries later, Timbuktu reached its grandeur under the Songhay Empire, becoming a haven for scholars.
From the early part of the fourteenth century to the time of the Moroccan invasion in the late sixteenth century, the city of Timbuktu became an important intellectual and spiritual center of the Islamic world, attracting people from as far away as Saudi Arabia to study there. Great mosques, universities, schools, and libraries were built under the Mali and Songhai Empires, some of which still stand today.
Today, the very fabric of Timbuktu today is threatened by what once contributed to the city's success—the Sahara Desert. The desert, which for centuries brought wealth to the city, now brings only drifting sands, driven by the dry wind of the harmattan, that threaten to smother the city and its monuments. This desertification has destroyed the vegetation, water supply and many historical structures in the city.”
Visit Tuareg peoples in 4x4 vehicle and see Tuareg dances at their camp in the desert. Hotel LA MAISON, TIMBUKTU.
Day 9 Wedneday February 4
Early flight back to Mopti. Drive to Bandiagara, 45 minutes, jumping off point for Dogon Country, another UNESCO World Heritage Site. We will have a Dogon guide who was raised here and speaks Dogon. Visit villages along the route. Sleep either on the rooftops on comfortable foam slabs, or in rooms at a campement. Night in Dogon Country.
Day 10 Thursday February 5
Today we’ll walk the rocky paths to discover the Dogon way of life. Our visit will include indigo dyers, the Tellem caves now used as burial sites, the houses of spiritual chiefs, the granaries with thatched conical roof tops, and the togunas or meeting places. Sleep either on the rooftops on comfortable foam slabs, or in rooms there; Dogon Country.
Day 11 Friday February 6
Dogon country walk through other interesting villages. See the vivid rock paintings on cliffs in Songho, the village where the boys’ circumcisions are done; visit friends here in the village. Return to Mopti in the evening. Hotel Doux Reves, MOPTI.
Day 12 Saturday February 7
Visit Mosque at Mopti, market and blacksmiths at river’s edge. See a friend in Sevare who has a Bead Museum and interesting arts and crafts for sale. Drive back to Segou.
Night in SEGOU; Hotel or private house.
Day 13 Sunday February 8
Morning workshop: tour a professional mudcloth studio and try your hand at making a piece of mudcloth. (Options for anyone not wanting the workshop.)
Afternoon free to relax.
Traditional music event with our musician friends.
Night in SEGOU; Hotel or private house.
Day 14 Monday February 9
Return to Bamako. See/buy anything you missed. Farewell dinner at friend’s restaurant.
Day room in hotel. Prepare for flights home which usually leave around midnight. BAMAKO to HOME.
Price: $3295 (Cost could increase slightly if the US dollar continues to fall; we will keep you posted.)
Includes: 14 nights (double room) accommodation plus day room in BKO hotel on last night (12 nights in modest and pleasant hotels with fan or A/C, 2 nights sleeping on rooftops or in basic rooms in Dogon Country), Round Trip flight to Timbuktu; ALL meals and restaurant tips; ALL ground transportation in private van; dye and mudcloth workshops, entrances to 3 UNESCO World Heritage sites and all museums and events on itinerary, local guides in Dogon Country and Timbuktu, airport transfers upon arrival and departure in Bamako, pirogue ride on Niger River to visit Bozo pottery village. Single Supplement: $350.
Not included: Alcoholic beverages, Segou festival tickets, baggage porter tips, and items of a personal nature.
Notes:
Airfare is not included in the tour price.
Price Includes:
- All accommodations (12 nights hotel, 2 nights Dogon Country and day room in hotel on last night; double rooms),
- All meals and restaurant tips,
- All ground transportation in private van,
- Round-trip flights to Timbuktu,
- All entries to museums and events on itinerary except as noted; all guide fees.
Also see tour packages in:
Africa
Mali
Cultural Journey
Textile Arts
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