Page 137 - Empires of Medieval West Africa

E m p i r E s o f m E d i E v a l w E s t a f r i c a

Making the Best of Life

in the lands of the former medieval empires of nights when there is a full moon. children
the standards of city life are gradually will play out doors until after midnight, with
improving. a visitor to the busy capital of the game hide-and-seek being among their
Bamako might even be surprised to learn favorite. when mangoes are ripe, they also
that mali is still rated as one of the world’s keep their ears tuned to the “thump” sound
poorest countries. the city’s center is filled of falling fruit. when they hear a mango hit
with people buying and selling merchandise, the ground, they race to find it and share it
and the two bridges over the Niger river con- among their friends.
necting Bamako’s main districts have traffic adults listen to battery-powered radios
jams. although neighborhoods in Guinea’s and portable tape players, or they may
capital of conakry have electricity only at gather in a neighbor’s yard to watch videos
night, the busy city centers are crowded with on a monitor powered by generators. since
people logging on to the internet. traffic is commercial films on cassettes and dvds
congested there too, because conakry is on have become increasingly available in these
a narrow peninsula with the atlantic ocean
on three sides. towns, enterprising individuals have built
However, in the more rural towns and vil- “video palaces” in the form of large grass
lages of mali and Guinea, most houses still huts with benches. videos are rented in town
lack running water. instead, there are cov- and brought out to the villages for inexpen-
ered neighborhood wells with hand pumps. sive nightly showings that are very popular
lines form as women and girls gather with with young people.
their buckets and tubs, and socialize while in mali and Guinea people are also excited
waiting their turn to pump the water. the that american citizens elected a president
metal tubs are so heavy when filled that it whose father was from Kenya. after the 2009
takes two women to lift one onto the carrier’s U.s. elections, pictures of Barack obama
head. were placed in taxi windows, stores were
in the thousands of communities where named after him, and people sold posters of
there is no electricity, people take advantage the president and his family.

ancient cities of Jenne and Timbuktu and its famous cultural attrac-
tions, including music, dance, and sculpture. Many first-time visitors
to Mali and Guinea are shocked by the poverty they see, but also awed
by the beauty of the landscape and the friendliness and ambition of

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