Timbuktu - at the end of the world

Well not quite the end of the world, but we're privileged to take a short educational vacation and visit this obscure and mysterious former capital of the Songhai empire.

We’ve only been less than 3 weeks in Niger and we flew off to Timbuktu! Timbuktu is in northern Mali which borders on Niger. Mali is a French African country and the town Timbuktu is known as “Tombouctou” in French, as you can see in the photo. In the local Songhai language it is known as Tin Bouctou which means the (water) well of a well known lady called Bouctou (with a large navel!).

How did we get here??

While watching the annual softball tournament at the American embassy grounds in Niamey, we heard of an opportunity with SIMAIR which was already planning to fly to Timbuktu to pick up 3 people and they had 2 empty seats on their 6 seater Piper aircraft. Days later we were on the plane! Pictured here is the aircraft and our pilot Ed, on the tarmac at Niamey international airport.

Below is a posed picture of us in the passenger area and cargo.
I (Tim) sat up front in the co-pilot seat on the flight to Timbuktu.

The propeller is noisy so we have good quality headphones and microphone for communicating with each other and Christine during the flight. The flight to Timbuktu was about 2.5 hours. We flew at about 10,000 feet for most of the way there and at 13,000 feet on the way back. It was turbulent at times because of the hot air below us. A rocky flight over the Sahara is rather disturbing! But we made it through fine.

This picture left is the town of Timbuktu taken from the plane window. It is truly a desert town. There is no river in the town, but the Niger river is not far away (north horizon).

We had arrangements to stay at a guest house with the Evangelical Baptist mission (EBM) near the town, at a place called “the project”.

The project is a huge (for Timbuktu) agricultural farming territory which feeds about 30% of the population of Timbuktu. The project is operated by an American couple, the Marshalls. It has private irrigated lots which local people use to grow crops. The picture below left is Richard Marshall showing us some of the plots of lands. Here in the shade of lime trees and other trees are small trees and plants ready for planting.

They have gas generators to power electricity for pumping water out of wells. He also has some experimental hand powered water pumps as well which he showed us.

Here above we are having lunch in the Marshall house. Clockwise starting from Christine we have: Christine, Ed the pilot, Richard and Anna Marshall, Tim, John – a friend of their daughter from school, Dan – a math teacher at Sahel, and a daughter taking the photo.

Here we are (right) in the dunes of the Sahara desert! Just outside of Timbuktu. The sand is very soft. During the day it is brutally hot but it cools down considerably at night. Since the nights are cool, we slept outside under a mosquito net suspended over a camp style bed. By dawn the next morning it was about 19 C and we were under a blanket. We rose at 5:30AM, very comfortable in the early morning.

We did a walking tour of the town in the morning plus some driving. Our guide is a local Timbuktu African and also Pastor of the local EBM Baptist church (picture later). Here left is the famous oldest mosque in Timbuktu. It is dated about 13^th century.

Below is another larger mosque in town. Timbuktu was once the capital of the Songhai Empire. It had one of the largest most advanced universities of its time, prior to being overtaken by the Moroccans. The French took over Mali in the late 1800’s. The Songhai are the dominant tribe in the Timbuktu area. With the changes in climate and politics, Timbuktu transformed from the great prosperous trade city it once claimed to be into the small desert town it is today.

In their traditional culture, the men desired the fattest women possible, and would feed their wives large amounts of fatty foods in order to make them as big as possible! Fat was equated to being wealthy. Some women were too heavy to get on camels!

There are a few small museums in Timbuktu, as well as sites of homes of early English, French and Austrian explorers.

Left I (Tim) am pictured with a block of pure salt. These slates of pure salt are found in the desert, and they are traditionally traded as goods. Salt is found in abundance in the desert, it is believed that the Sahara desert was once underneath the ocean / sea.

The right (above) shows is a typical scene on the outskirts of town. Behind the church in the middle of town is an area called the “Misery belt” which is similar to this photo but more crowded. It is the poor area of town.

Left is our tour guide standing with Christine, in front of the Women’s centre/shelter for the Baptist church. The centre provides skills training for women (there are about a dozen sewing machines inside) as well as education, shelter for abused women, clean water, food distribution. The guide/pastor knows his town history very well, and he also had many interesting stories about the church and its development.

The Malian government built a monument to commemorate the peace accord with the Tuareg rebels in the early 1990s. This display of guns below is part of the monument. Unfortunately despite the monument and the accord, the Tuareg rebels are currently active again and have recently stated that they want to separate their territory in the northern Mali & Niger areas to form their own country. That’s the main political trouble at present.

Mali is a predominantly Muslim country as is Niger. There is a Catholic church and cemetery in Timbuktu (dating from latter 18^th century). The cemetery has armed guards 24hour because it has frequently been vandalized by Muslims who have smashed and desecrated the tombs of the priests buried there as well as overturned crosses on graves etc. The Catholic population of the town is reputed to be no more than about 20 members though.

A haunted house story: When the African Baptist pastor originally requested from the city to obtain land for the church, he was refused to build on any land except for one place in town which was known as the haunted place. Nobody in town would walk near that lot let alone build on it. It is the old ancient area of town known by archeologists for finding old pottery etc. The local legend is that it is inhabited by evil spirits and people were afraid to go there. So as their only option they built the Baptist church at that spot. Later people determined that the land was no longer haunted, and the neighboring area started building up. The original church had filled to capacity and they have since expanded it to hold about 120 people, and also have several buildings and centres for community charity work. The pastor says he has occasionally received threats over the years but he seems very upbeat and optimistic despite that.

We end with a sunset on the Sahara. That’s our trip in a nutshell, lots we can write about (and more photos) but we just wanted to share a quick story on the trip.