It was Dogon Hot

[Martin Hash]

Dogon Village.JPG

The three day trek through the Dogon villages in Mali are stunningly evocative is so stunning, you literally feel as if you have been dropped on the set of a Hollywood movie. The Dogon people inhabit a majestic valley surrounded by towering cliff faces, accessed through hidden clefts in the rocks. They are handsome, friendly people, who live in incredibly cute villages consisting of conical-roofed cylindrical outbuildings, winding footpaths, multistory round houses with steep-staired passageways that open onto ornate balconies. The red dirt sand, combined with straw, make a beautiful stucco for coating the walls of their houses, and their culture matches their architecture: full of colorful costumes, exotic dances and music. This combined with the incongruence of cold beer served under covered verandas, and good cell phone coverage makes the experience even more surreally fantastic.

Each of our touring days was broken into two hikes of approximately 8 kilometers each. We started by 8 am but it was already approaching 100 degrees. Afternoon heat goes over 110 degrees. Our hiking group stretched out so far that we lost sight of the contingent parts: Young Turks in front, porters in the middle, and Old-Fogies in the rear. Boabab trees rise to either side of us, and intricate traces in the soil mark where streams overflow in the rainy season. Remarkably there was a small isolated pond filled with crocodiles! The cliff faces were pepped with the wasp-like dwellings of some ancient race, monuments to a sense of self-preservation that caused them to construct such inaccessible abodes. Foot blisters were common, and dehydration always a risk, but mosquitoes were not a bother. There were lots of farm animals and wild birds, and the occasional green field watered from hand-dug wells. During one break at a local village, we watched a local man in a conical hat break a huge rock into rectangular stone bricks used for construction - it was 103 degrees before he stopped for an afternoon rest! Unbelievably, it was just at that time that we were told to climb up a hill to watch the Dogon Mask Dancers performed their exceptional cavalcade: a spectacular array of costumes, masks, synchronized dancing, and parade – easily more entertaining than extravaganzas in Las Vegas. I could only sit in sweaty awe, waiting for 5 pm when the temperature would drop under 100 degrees so we could start the afternoon hike to the next village. When we stopped for the night we were served a meal of couscous and vegetables, and given the opportunity to buy handcrafts. I personally have no room or inclination to carry away bric-a-brac but I appreciate the beauty and craftsmanship of their manufacture, and certainly other members of our party were more than satisfied with their purchases.

The Dogon people, we were told were ostensibly Christian (probably for the foreign aid money), but the animas aspects of their lifestyle left little doubt in my mind where their true beliefs lay. Curious, I Googled the Internet and found many articles from National Geographic and other travel magazines, which I read with great interest. I suspect the reality of such a unique, incongruent people is somewhere between artifice and actuality but the mixture was so seamless that Disneyland would be in awe.