Word: bamako
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...books from outside collectors. In some ways, saving these old manuscripts could imperil them further. In decades past only the hardy visited Timbuktu; the journey required days of travel up the malaria-infested Niger River. Today, dozens of tourists arrive several times a week on small commercial planes from Bamako, the capital of the former French colony. Timbuktu has become a favorite jumping-off point to explore the world's biggest desert. As the modern world rushes in, attitudes among Timbuktu's youth - the generation who will take custody of all those precious manuscripts - is changing fast. Entertainment in Timbuktu...
...bearing giant bricks of salt which they transport across the Sahara for weeks - just as traders did centuries ago when the area's manuscripts were originally written. In Mahmoud's mind, too, local attitudes remain unchanged. Locals remain fiercely distrustful of outsiders, he says, including Mali's government in Bamako, with which locals have been at odds for years. Many people still jealously guard family heirlooms as a tangible form of security. "We won't sell our manuscripts, even if you offer us billions. They will be left to the children who will look after them. We know which those...
...presidential election last fall - when Diarra's fantasy of an African American in the White House began to seem probable - he downloaded a new ringtone onto his phone, of Obama chanting "Yes we can! Yes we can!" As the election results rolled in, Diarra joined the celebrations on Bamako's streets, and changed his ringtone again, to Obama's victory song by Stevie Wonder, "Signed, Sealed, Delivered," which he has kept ever since. His taxi's dashboard is decorated with stickers of Obama's face. And during the hours he spends chugging through Bamako's streets, he has created...
...Diarra is hardly alone among Africans in thinking of Obama as his brother and friend. On a continent sorely in need of political role models, the U.S. President is a huge icon these days, not to mention a lucrative marketing tool. Vendors in Bamako's markets do a brisk trade in Obama T-shirts, buttons and posters. Obama love reaches even remote communities with no electricity or television. One day in May, a driver took me 30 miles (50 km) into the Sahara Desert from the northern Mali town of Timbuktu. There in the tiny village of Ber, he unfurled...
From there, Welcome to Mali becomes a more standard Amadou and Mariam affair, which is to say it's a joyous, hook-filled guitar album with impressive range. Amadou grew up as the biggest Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple fan in Bamako, and while he knows how to mimic the sounds of a kora and slip into high-stepping township jive, he's most at home using African styles to flavor rock melodies. "Ce N'Est Pas Bon" is stomping garage rock, while "Bozos" could be a particularly happy Neil Young song. Everything has a familiar pop structure, but there...