Last week, our group took a trip to several villages. The first on our journey, and the largest (with nearly 5000 residents) was Djoliba.
The night before we left, my host mom explained to me that the voyage would be very easy because the roads to Djoliba are good. I don't know if she was thinking about another road or if Malians have a different conception of what constitutes a good road, but I think the latter is probably the case. The road wasn't paved and it was one of the bumpiest, dustiest journies of my life!
But the moment that I stepped off the bus afer our two hour ride, I knew that the difficult trip had been worth it. Thousands of villagers lined the road to greet us, singing and waving. I was overwhelmed and surprised that all these people had put down their work to greet us! Walking through the tunnel of smiling people, I felt like a celebrity. A group of hunters wearing traditional, loose-fitting brown outfits adorned with animal skins fired blanks into the air in greeting and led us towards a large circle where we were told to take our seats for what ended up being the most amazing welcome ceremony I've ever experienced. First, some of the hunters played drums while the rest took turns dancing, whipping around at lightning speed, creating small tornadoes of dust with their feet. Then it was our turn. We all shuffled around in a circle, swaying to the beat. After a few minutes, the hunters began dragging small groups of 2 or 3 of us into the center to break loose. At first, I felt slightly self-conscious about trying to imitate the way that Malian women dance (I'm pretty klutzy in America, and I could just picture myself tripping in front of the entire village!) but once I saw how hillarious the villagers found our dancing, I had no reserves.
After we had thoroughly entertained the audience, the ceremony took a more serious tone. We sat down again and the village elders gave everyone an old-fashioned glass bottle of coke. Next, they presented us with platters and platters of fresh fish, eliciting oos and ahhs from the audience. When one receives a gift in Malian culture, it is important for the recipient to to show the gift to others as proof of the giver's generosity. As a result, Cherif made sure that everyone in ou group took note of the lavish gifts. (To give you an idea of how much fish we were given, the entire group of 25 plus professors ate three large meals of fish, rice and veggies...and there was still some left over!)
Next, a hunter began to shout the praises of Cherif and his family into a microphone. (Djoliba is much more developed than Nana Keneba and some of the village has electricity.) Cherif was very touched by the kind words (the hunter spoke in Bambara of course, but Cherif later translated for us). When the hunter was finished, each of us used the microphone one by one to announce our Malian names to the audience. Mali abounds with "joking" relationships--families with certain last names traditionally trade insults with other families (you're a bean-eater, you're my slave, etc). As a result, some of us received loud applause for our family names, other received boos!
I was sorry to see the ceremony come to an end. It was one of the highlights of my trip so far!
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