Southern Sahara Travel

St Louis is on the banks of the Senegal river in the country of Senegal. The wide estuary of the Senegal River is a haven of life. St Louis was a French colony. You can drive around St Louis with a pony and tram. Polygamy is common in Senegal. The idea behind this is that the wives can help in the fields. But there can be heaps of conflict and jealousy between the wives. Sometimes wife can do magic on one of the other wives. Superstition and voodoo remain powerul out here in the Southern Sahara. 160 miles south of Senegal is the island of Goray. In days of old it was the departure point for slaves shipped to America. Dakar is the capital of Senegal. Wrestling is a very popular sport in senegal.

Dakar in Senegal has a vibrant music industry. The clubs are alive with fun and music. Over two million people live in Dakar. They pour in from the impoverished countryside. You can then catch a train from Dakar to the capital of Mali, Bamako. There are plenty of boab trees. Mali has rocky escarpments and the train climbs into the hills. The train journey can take as long as it takes - it can be up to ten hours late. Just relax and have a beer on the train.

Bamako is a vibrant city and you can get a relatively decent coffee for breakfast. Music is a big industry in Mali and there are many famous musicians that are known world-wide. The kora is a traditional instrument that has strings over a gourd and is played by plucking. The musicians are hereditary and they pass the skills down from father to son for many generations. The markets have everything from shrunken heads to limes.

The Dogong people live in cliffs in mud huts. The hunters hunt for monkeys and wild dogs and are well esteemed. They use old flint loading guns and load with a gunpowder horn. A lunch can be goat and millet. 56 centigrade is the temperature. The straw topped granaries contain the staple of the Dogongs, millet. The blacksmiths make the implements for the village and also do the circumcisions. The Dogong dance on stilts in colourful costumes.

Southern Sahara Resources

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