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Published: April 1st 2011
IMAGES OF MALI...DANCING IN DOGON COUNTRY...ENNDE
We can hear the drumming as we approach Ennde, a more substantial village at the foot of the cliff...4,000 cfa each OK..."here come and sit here" as we are led to the very front row...and an hour of flashing feathers, rustling raffia, pulsating dancing, masks, stilts, athletic bodies... with a cricket bat rock monolith as backdrop...a photograher's paradise known as the festival of the Danses des Masques...
Our own mud campement tonight...showers...heaven for the girls...G & T's with our guides and members of the festival band...it does not get better than this!
Buying mud cloth, masks & Dogon jewellery...always room for more...to add to my Dogon walking stick that I am determined to get back to Oz...
Yabatalou for lunch, massage and siesta...and the odd first aid...a big dance session with the locals...and reggae danced out of there...
Then boys grab our packs and we scale the falaise...through oases as we go...and to the top...to the buildings of rock and mud that is the rock platform village overlooking Burkina Faso known as Begnimato... where we party to late...with our friends from Holland, France, USA, and of course...Colombia.
We sleep on a mud roof next to a big drop with two rock monoliths beyond...and when I roll onto my back I can feel the cool breeze...and the fine dust settling on my face.
The top of the falaise was rock, rock and more rock, appeared to be ironstone on sandstone...& we went up and down, by, and along until we rocked into Konsogou-Ley for a cup of tea, and "Welcome, welcome, you are very welcome" from our host as he played his own composition on his dogon guitar...and of course we danced...and hugged as we left...a very special time...and a highlight of the trek.
Further rock hopping, climbing, winding, up, down and around...until we arrived at Dourou...a village split in half by a massive crack in the rock...and that is what there was...rock, rock and more rock...1,000 people living there...in a severe landscape...
Welcome to Dogon Country...
Enjoy & Relax...
Dancing Dave (who danced up & down the Falaise of Dogon Country on his way to Timbuktu!)
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Dancing Dave
David Hooper
The vibrancy & frenetic nature of their dance has been well captured...