Mali. Motoring Up the Niger, River of Life
The Niger River is a symbol of life in Africa’s arid Sahel. Along with serving as a principal pathway for trade, the Niger’s waters are used to grow rice and millet, sustain cattle, and harvest fish. At the same time, the river’s meandering and unpredictable route has baffled geographers and mapmakers. Beginning in the highlands of Guinea, the river follows a boomerang-shaped route towards Timbuktu and the Sahara and then abruptly turns southward towards the Atlantic Ocean. After the Nile and Congo, the Niger is Africa’s third longest (4,000 kilometers) river. Arriving in Ségou in July 1796, Scottish explorer Mungo Park was first to explore the Niger. Ninety-one years later, French Army Lieutenant Edmond Caron sailed a gunboat down the river to gather information needed for expansion in the region. To fans of the 2005 movie, Sahara, the story of a 19th century gunboat motoring on the Niger may sound familiar.
In preparation for our three-day journey from Korioumé to Mopti, we loaded luggage, several cases of bottled water, and other supplies onto our pinassee. A common sight on the Niger, pinassees are narrow-beamed boats with sharply pointed bows. Ours was topped with a thatched roof and powered by a small outboard motor. A makeshift toilet, essentially a wooden box surrounding an open hole, was positioned on the boat’s stern. My companion and I were accompanied by the boat driver, his assistant, and our English-speaking guide. One advantage of having our own pinassee was the opportunity to stop along the river as we wished.
For much of our journey we couldn’t see the landscape beyond high bluffs on each side of the river. However, in a few places mud-adobe houses topped with thatched roofs were visible along the bluff’s edge. We speculated that rice or millet was being grown nearby because of gasoline-powered water pumps and thick hoses that extended up and over the bluff. Agricultural land in this part of Mali is tended by farmers known as Bobo (aka Bobo-Dioulasso). Bobo villages are organized around a patrilineal (male) system of leadership and inheritance. We also saw groups of cattle tended by Fulani herdsmen wearing conically shaped straw hats. Fulani speak a language known as Fula and are Muslim by faith. As we continued motoring upstream, we passed groups of boats operated by Bozo fishermen. In several places Bozo men were throwing circular nets into the water from a pirogue (small boat). The name “Bozo” comes from words in Bambara referring to straw houses that serve as dwellings within transitory fishing villages. The bull is a symbol of Bozo culture with the animal’s body signifying the Niger River and its horns representing fishing boats.
Things became somewhat informal during the many hours we spent motoring upriver. Waking from one of my frequent naps, I asked our guide a question about “lazy” cattle wading near the shoreline. He laughed and henceforth addressed me as “lazy cow.” Later, he began calling my photo-obsessed travel companion “old woman who walks slowly with camera.” One afternoon we stopped at a Bozo village to purchase capitaine (Nile perch) that the boat driver’s assistant cooked with rice, vegetables, and spices. The meal was delicious! Somewhat unsettling was the driver’s practice of taking smoking breaks while sitting on the boat’s fuel barrel. Also worrisome was the tendency of the outboard motor to stop abruptly, leaving us twisting uncontrollably as the driver pulled on the starter cord. Despite these issues, travel by pinassee was relaxing compared to dodging rocks and potholes on dusty roads.
Aside from a few egrets, we saw almost no wildlife. An exception were several hippos that dined on aquatic vegetation. It was sometimes difficult to see them because only their noses and ears extended above the water level. Although seemingly docile, hippos can be aggressive and have been known to attack boats, so we elected to maintain a respectable distance when we saw one. At night our boat was tied to the shoreline. After dinner the boat driver, his assistant, and our guide dozed on cushions in the boat’s recesses while my companion and I slept in small tents on the sandy riverbank.
Our journey ended at Mopti, the largest cargo facility in Mali. Crisscrossed by several canals, the city operates as a fishing port, market, and boat manufacturing center. Located at the confluence of the Bani and Niger Rivers, Mopti has been described as West Africa’s Venice.
