A village mask festival
Tuesday, March 27th, 2007Mali was a pretty tough experience for us, more than we’d expected. Though it’s a very poor country, it’s also seen as the ‘jewel’ in West Africa’s crown for tourism, so I thought there would be more facilities for travellers. But the transport was extremely difficult and it was hard to find internet cafes at reasonable prices or buy basic items. Burkina Faso is one rung lower than Mali on the UN human development index that I mentioned a couple of posts ago (making it the world’s third poorest country), but so far it seems like it will be a much easier place to travel in. From what we’ve heard from other travellers, transport is frequent and leaves on time (!), roads are good and there is less hassle. Internet access here in Bobo is one-fifth of the price of most places in Mali, so that’s a good start.
Yesterday was our first day in Burkina Faso and we were lucky to be able to catch a mask festival. The ‘season’ for mask festivals is just starting, which is great as I like masks and have become a collector in West Africa, having bought five so far. Yesterday was the final day of a three-day festival in a tiny village called Pala, near the city of Bobo, where we’re staying. In an open space in the village, a series of masked dancers perform a small routine in turn, with the crowd looking on from the edge of the square or, more often, from the rooftops of nearby buildings. It was hard to get a good vantage point but we managed to find an OK spot among the locals. There was a group of 12 or so tourists on a 4WD tour but other than that we were the only foreigners among a few hundred Africans. Some of the performers were wearing bird-like masks and all of them were covered from head to toe in a shaggy outfit – again, the photos will show it better but I haven’t found a good place to upload them yet.
Overall I thought the mask festival was really cool and maybe the best thing about West Africa so far. Wendy prefers Dogon Country and it’s hard to argue as that was an enjoyable four-day trip and the festival lasted only for about an hour. But still, Burkina Faso is off to a good start. It’s still hot, but tomorrow we’re hoping to cycle to a swimming lake that is supposed to be quite pretty, so we’re looking forward to that. We’re also pretty sure we’ll see elephants soon, either here or soon after we arrive in Ghana, which should be great.
A long overdue uploading of photos will hopefully come when we get to the Burkina Faso capital in about a week.
Nick