Grade Level: SrH-Adult
Producer: BBC
Closed Captioned: No |
Running Time: 55 mins
Country of Origin: Great Britain
Study Guide: No |
Copyright Date: 2002
Available in French: No
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Crossing the Senegal River to the old French colonial capital of St Louis, Michael leaves the desert behind and savours the delights of cosmopolitan Black Africa. He meets up with Senegal's Queen of Soap, Marie-Madeleine Yakouba. Over lunch, the topic of polygamy comes up and it is one that will resonate throughout the thousand-mile trip to Timbuktu. Marie-Madeleine will have none of it, a view shared by schoolmistress, Dhadi Ba, with whom Michael shares a carriage on the train to Bamako. “Co-wives get jealous and there's no two ways about it,” she exclaims, pointing out how black magic and accusations of witchcraft are endemic in polygamous families. For the men, be they champion wrestlers like Morf or jazz club owners, the fact is that polygamy is taken for granted in the same way as the tardiness of the Bamako Express train. Leaving the Senegalese capital of Dakar behind, Michael finally arrives in Bamako after a two-day train journey and meets up with renowned kora (African harp) player, Toumani Diabate. He has the rare privilege of a personal recital at Toumani's home before heading off to the Dogon people. A week with the Dogon allows Michael to get to grips with their extraordinary culture and, after narrowly missing having his head blown off by an ancient flintlock rifle, he decides to head on to the most appealing of all the Saharan towns: Djenne. Met by a diminutive Fulani guide called Pygmy, he is shown round the town with its beautiful mudbuilt mosque and market full of sheep, for he has arrived on the eve of Tabaski, the most important Muslim festival. Sharing prayers, sacrificial sheep and the story of Pygmy's love for the milk seller, Michael is surprised to find out that the sacrificial sheep testicles are meant to make you clever… But the call of the magnificent Niger River lures him away from the festivities and he manages to hitch a ride on a pinasse, one of the large wooden hulled cargo boats that ply the river between Mopti and Timbuktu. It is the same journey that the great Scottish explorer Mungo Park took 200 years ago, but this time less dangerous – the main obstacles being an intransigent Norwegian missionary and a large sandbank which grounds the pinasse a - day's journey away from the legendary city that Mungo Park never reached. |
