Late nights in Bamako, Mali

In Bamako we treated ourselves and the Land Rover - the latter to an oil change and plenty of grease, and us to a fine hotel on the river Niger, the Mande.

 

This week is the anniversary of the death of Ali Farka Toure, the Malian blues musician, and apparently there are various events to pay homage - but it is not easy to find out about them. The tourist office staff were nice but uninformed, and sent us to the national museum; they sent us to a 5 star hotel, where there was indeed a gala dinner, featuring music from Toumani Diabate, Oumou Sangare and others. Instead, we went to Toumani's club, Le Hogon, where we knew he'd play later. 

It turned out to be much later, and when I left Jason there with his Castel beer at 2am, Toumani was just taking the stage. I took a taxi to the airport to meet Steffi, and by the time we got back to the club at 4am the concert was finished, but Toumani told us about a free concert the next evening. 

Inevitably, the next evening we missed his group again; we took Jason to the airport at the critical moment. We met that rarity, an interesting and well informed taxi driver (highly recommended if you are interested in the local music scene - Ibrahim, 683 1143), and the next night he took us to another club, the Djembe. After a couple of weeks of getting up at dawn, I've got jet lag from the switch to nocturnal life. So apart from the music, did nothing in Bamako but laze by the pool. 

On Monday morning, I tracked down the main organiser for the Ali Farka Toure events, his US manager, and she was on her way to Niafounké, his home town, for a concert there. We are welcome to join her entourage. So, a bit sooner than planned, we quickly packed, checked out, filled both tanks, and are off to Mopti, a few hundred kilometres downstream on the Niger, to catch a boat to Niafounké.