Peace Corps Mali, January 1991-March 1993

As a Peace Corps volunteer, I lived in Mali, West Africa for two years.

When people ask what I did in the Peace Corps, I usually say I tried to learn the language and I tried not to cause trouble. I did take a lot of pictures. Mostly I stayed in my home village of Kéléya, about 100 kilometers south of Bamako, the capital.

I also travelled a bit to Northern Mali, home of Mopti, the famous mosque town of Djenné, the Dogon country of Bandiagara, and Timbuktu, where my camera gave out. Thus I have no pictures of subsequent travels to Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, Morocco, Spain, France, South Africa, and Lesotho, all of which I visited after completing my Peace Corps service.

Women Working

Here is a scene I saw every day: my landlady's family, including her daughter, Aminata Bagayoko (far left) and her friends in the family courtyard, preparing grain -- and the males in the family relaxing under the shade drinking tea


From early morning to evening, women pounded millet, corn, rice, leaves, dried fish, and other edible ingredients to make the daily meal. It takes a lot of stamina, patience, and power to pound grain

The alternative to pounding grain by hand. In the larger towns you could bring your grain (usually soaked corn) to the gas powered mill. Here is a woman at the Kéléya mill

Fotigi's household help in the courtyard

My Bambara tutor's helper. Here she is picking through some grains while the chickens peck at the ground

This was a party to celebrate the successful completion of a village development project near Ouellessebougou

Family Compounds

Villagers in Kéléya and surrounding villages did not have a lot of material goods, but many compounds were neatly swept every day

Others were not so tidy

Here someone in the village planted flowers to brighten the courtyard

Men in Mali

Building a house with dried earth (adobe) bricks

Children in Mali

This boy is dressed in a special overshirt for a circumcision ceremony

This is a special occasion outfit for a circumcision ceremony

Girls help even from a young age. I was continually amazed at how game the children were and how willing they were to work hard with very little material goods as incentives

Northern Mali

I always enjoyed the energy of a market. Here is the Mopti Market

A street scene in Djenné, Mali, where I visited my friend Qani Belul

A mosque. The trees are stripped of their bark; they don't naturally look like that