Ongoing House Construction and a Malian Radio Show

My friend Diallo is currently building a new house for Senata, one of my closest friends and his fiancée. Pictured above, young men from Bokomana, his ‘kin’ (neighborhood), assist him in constructing the walls using mud bricks and mud as mortar.

The men take time out to pose for a picture atop the Malian ‘scaffolding’. The man to the left, known as Jelicɛ, is the local mason. He is hired to oversee the building of the exterior walls of most new homes. Pictured above, he is setting a guide string lengthwise along the wall to guide the men in orienting the bricks properly.

Badri, a presenter from the local radio station in Dioro, stopped by one afternoon to record a show on our women’s garden. He primarily gathered women together to interview them regarding their work in the garden. As he conducted the interviews, Bokari, our resident ‘jelicɛ’ (male griot), played a gentle tune on the ‘ngɔni’ (traditional Malian guitar) for background music. Badri used a smartphone to record the event, and it aired during his 30 minute timeslot that same evening.

After the interviews, Badri asked the women to hold a ‘ɲɛnajɛ’ (celebration) during which he could record music for his show. The women played the ‘gita,' a bowl-shaped calabash which is placed upon fabric and pounded by hand for percussion. A few women took turns playing this instrument. The other women sang and clapped, all blending into vibrant traditional song. The women really enjoyed this, and Badri said that the main reason he asks for music to be performed after the interview is that it encourages the women to participate beforehand.

A ‘musokɔrɔba’ (elder woman) got up during the performance to dance and jump around. She also yelled random shout-outs during pauses in the singing, including many to myself. We all found her very entertaining.

We had moved into a small mud building to escape the midday sun. Women were enthusiastically crowding the two entrances in order to participate.

Lamuru is another local craftsman who, like Jelicɛ, is hired for most local house construction projects. However, while Jelicɛ specializes in the structural walls, Lamuru specializes in the house interior. Here, Lamuru is finishing off the interior walls of the house my friend Bamoussa is building for his fiancée with a smooth coat of mud.

Back at Diallo’s house, the Bokomana men all pitched in to help build the exterior wall around his new concession.

Mud bricks are made at pits dug outside the village. These pits fill with water during the rainy season, providing the necessary ingredients, dirt and water, in the brick making process. The men in my ‘kin’ of Katilɛla use a pit they refer to as ‘Mozango,’ which actually was filled to the brim with water during the January flood. The flood waters were useful, after all! My friend Madani (foreground) is making mud bricks for a new wall in his concession. Bayani, another close friend of mine, and his young son Basɛkou (background) are making mud bricks for a new house. Their house is old and falling apart, so they plan to build a new one this year. A new house requires approximately 1,500 mud bricks.

My friend Daoudaɲini and Baba mix cement within Bamoussa’s house.

Lamuru carefully spreads and levels the cement flooring within Bamoussa’s house.