The trades of Timbuctions are
still mostly traditional with some modifications to take
into consideration modernity. Many of the trades and crafts
are passed down within the same families from generation to
generation. These trades maintain guilds that only take on
apprentices at an early age and only the initiated may
practice. Sometimes strange rights and rituals are
practised and superstitions abound both among the guild
members and about the guilds by non-members. Such
superstitions often aid in maintaining the sanctity of the
guild. Some of the guilds and their accompanying
superstitions have broken down more than others largely due
to French intervention and the collapse of traditional
economy and hierarchy. Here are some of the principle
trades practised in Timbuktu:
The baking occurs primarily in the early morning. Though some women do a second later run around 10 am. In certain neighbourhoods that are known for their bread making it is also common to do an evening run. Unless a special order has been made in advance bread is sold on a first come first serve basis. In times when bread is in high demand you must get there early to get any and it is not uncommon to wait while all the loaves are cooked and doled out and then leave empty handed. When the bread has not all been sold on the spot it is sold in the market or off tables along the road. Today there exists a modern electric oven bakery in Timbuktu that makes French style baguettes these are sold in kiosks around town but are considered inferior by all and will never take the place of the delicious fresh Takoula.
Bakers are exclusively women. Originally from the families of the high noblesse of Timbuktu’s sedentary Songai, the baker craft was passed down in certain families. There would be a single oven in a given street or neighbour hood that belonged particularity to the family that built it, though others on the street could come and use the oven to cook their own things. During that period a great many patisserie items were baked as well as bread. Even today, when the ovens abound and class distinctions no longer regulate who may make bake bread, the best bakers and the traditional delicacies are only to be found in the old parts of Timbuktu where those original families still live and practice their craft.
Today, while the barbers who perform sacred ceremonies such as the circumcision of boys may still hail from the traditional families there are innumerable barbers in town. Often young men with an electric hair clippers and a a razor blade for cleaning up the edges set up somewhere along the edge of a street to offer a a trim or a shave to either head or chin. They specialize in styles that are supposed to be “cool” trying to imitate american rappers or film stars.
Butchers The
butcher guild is rife with ritual and superstition and has
managed to retain much of its exclusivity even today.
Butchers traditionally come from the low caste of the
Songai of Timbuktu. Fulani or Bela (Black Tamacheq) may
also be tolerated as butchers as the come from away but do
not necessarily share the secrets of the guild. Like the
other guilds Butchers are highly stratified apprentices
working their way up from the most menial chores until they
are finally given status as full butchers. It is not
uncommon for families individually slaughter animals for
important celebrations such as the principle religious
days, baptisms, marriages and for wealthier families to
honour an important guest, or make an offering for the
Friday prayer day, perhaps inviting pious men to sing the
koran and pray together before feasting on a stew of heart,
liver and other choice morsels. In these cases any
respected man or head of household may slaughter the animal
in halal fashion and the family itself may complete the
butchering. Or they may have the family butcher do this
task which involves skinning the animal, removing the
internal organs, cleaning the stomach and intestines, and
cutting up the meat into manageable portions. This involves
at a minimum separating the hind and front ends, halving
the rib cage removing the legs at shoulder and hip.
The vast majority of meat consumed in Timbuktu however is
purchased from butchers who have stalls or tables through
the city as well as concentrated in the market place. A few
of these may be private operators, but most belong to the
powerful butcher’s guild. The slaughter of so many animals
is done in a single location know in Songai as the waye
madougou. Waye is a butcher and
madougou refers to the place where this is done
but the word actually comes from Malinke meaning the royal
palace. When the rather bloody and tyrannical Soni Ali Ber
conquered the Mandingue empire in favour of the Songai one
thing he did to stamp out any claim or opposition and grind
the pride of the defeated to dust was to destry the palace
and install in it’s place a slaughter house. The location
of the open air slaughter “house” has moved several time
since but the name stuck. It is currently well to the south
of town in direction of the airport, Its prior location up
until 2007 was in the north of town slightly to the west of
the Flamme de la Paix Monument. An effort has been made to
clean up the area gather the worst of it into heaps for
incineration but the ground is still blacked from the added
organic matter of spilled blood and stomach contents and it
is not uncommon to find horns lying about half buried in
the sand where a veritable mound of them once was.
This slaughter “house” is overseen by a chief who
distributes the work. Only the master butchers are
permitted to actually slaughter the animals. Each master
butcher has his apprentices and his associate butchers who
sell the meat in town. Once the animals have be slaughtered
they are weighed and distributed to the vendor butchers.
When the slaughter area was closer to town it was not
uncommon to see people walking to thier shops with a side
of beef on their heads or a large tub of pieces of a
smaller animal protruding. Now the meat is bundled in rice
sacks or heaped in basins and transported into town on one
of the rickety ancient land rovers that serve as bush taxis
to the port towns. They make the towns dropping of the
order of meat to each vendor. The vendor-butchers have a
long sharp double-bladed carving knife, a heavy machete, a
balance and set of weights, as their most essential
equipment. The consumers can order meat by weight or by
price, though price increments are based on the cost of
convenient weight increments. The smallest increment to
day, with the cost of meat so high, is about 200 hundred
francs (less than 50 cents) of beef, more than that for
sheep which is more costly. Meat is sold biri gara
“with bones” (and everything else a bit of intestine a bit
of stomach lining) or as filet with is just meat, which is
more expensive and usually only bought by people intending
to make a particular dish the requires boneless meat such
as the meat balls or kabobs. special organs such as liver
are sold separately at their own price. Head and hocks are
taken home by the butchers wives who stew them and sell
them door to door in the evenings. The vendor butchers are
quite skilled at keeping track of all the clients clustered
around their table thrusting money and calling out demands
for varying quantities of meat, making change, chopping
through heavy bones, keeping track of weights and prices
honing their carving knives on the backs of their machetes,
bundling meat paper from cement bags and keeping a running
mental tally of sale that needs to be returned to the
Master Butcher along with his share of the money at the end
of the day. The vendor butchers may get a share of the
sales but apprentices are paid in kind therefore they have
a tendency to mock the butcher who makes a poor purchase of
a scrawny animal. They are also suspected of swiping choice
bits to hide in thier pockets when the master isn’t
looking, though the master butchers were once apprentices
themselves so are wise to all the tricks.
Cattle and Sheep are the most commonly butchered goats only
rarely so and usually by and individual family. Camels are
also butchers but less often the people of the town not
appreciating so much. The camel is thought to be a
companion of the prophet and so it is a bit unseemly to
slaughter it yet it is also understood that its height
permits to graze on trees thought to have medicinal
properties which will then be passed on to the person who
eats it meat. However the camel, perhaps because only the
oldest one are slaughtered, is very tough and requires
extra cooking time. During the dry part of the year cattle
are more scarce mostly having been taken south to more
abundant grazing during this time more camel meat will be
on the market. In general however it is believe that the
animals that graze to the north are fatter and more
healthy, that the pasture there is more nutritious.
Butchers become adept at judging which animals come from
what areas and which will have a lot of meat.
The butchers are attributed with magic powers among them
the ability to control genies. These secrets are passed on
from father to son and ripen with age so that the older
butchers are always more powerful than the youngest. The
mysticism is most visible in the butcher’s dance. An
elaborate production it is only done on the occasion of
very important events and only after appropriate rites have
been performed. Once the butchers have decided to perform
the dance their chief is officially informed whereupon he
gives his agreement by distributing one hundred and one
cola nuts to the four great families of the guild. Through
this gift the dignitaries of the families inform all the
other butcher families, including their wives and children.
This sanctifies the dance, to miss it is a sacrilege, and
those who do will be fined. On the day of the dance the
butchers all abandon the market by noon to go and prepare
their elaborate and grotesque costumes made up of pieces of
old matts, sacs and hide; inflated intestines and bladders
hang from then and head dresses with the horns of cattle
top off the costume. The butcher’s wives dress in their
finest clothes, ornament their coiffeurs with gold and arms
throats with jewellery. They gather in the place where the
dance is to take place and clap along to the drummers’
rhythms. The drums are multiple large large hide covered
calabashes, small hide covered clay pots. These are
manipulated by women accompanied by a singer who is also
the wife of one of the butchers. People will begin to dance
as the excitement mounts the ladies will give piercing
ululations dancers will compete to show off their best
moves. Finally the costumed butchers will arrived
invariable followed by a hoard of children. The grotesque
costumes are a source of power as they cause fear and
respect in the viewers even the adults are leery of these
men when they dress so, superstition being far stronger and
more ingrained than any modern scepticism. One role of the
costume is to protect the butchers and their families from
evil spells. The dance the costumed butchers perform is
specific to them and carries specific meanings some are
mimed to show the the audience their power to show that
while they may be putrid their meat is good.
Carpenters There is today the descendants
of a single family who make the traditional doors of
Timbuktu. These doors are made of heavy wooden planks,
liberally studded with large headed nails and decorated
with ornate sheets of metal the holes cut in which one may
see the red cloth below and boasting an elaborate door
knocker. The modern doors have some notable differences
from the original ones, notably modern hinges and latches.
Metal has been cut out and beaten into the shape of the
great iron hinges that used to be used but are just nailed
on to the face of the door usually not corresponding to the
location of the actual hinges and sometimes not even flush
with the edge of the door. The metal studs which were
originally to fortify the door against attract are also
only ornamental today. Sheet metal has been formed into a
half sphere, a regular nail driven through the centre to
attach it to the door. The decorative metal pieces have a
distinct style and cut corresponding to the noble family
for whom the door was made, similar to a coat of arms.
Today the styles are are still copied but there is not
resriction on whose door they may grace. In the past the
decorations on the doors of wealthy families were wrought
in silver rather than the sheet metal painted with silver
paint and soon rusted.
Elaborate window shutters and grills are also made by this
family. The window grills allow light and air to pass but
block the opening from trespasers. Thier most important
function in the past however was to protect the privacy of
the ladies within the house. There was plenty of space for
her to look out and observe the activity in the streets but
from the outside it was difficult to get a view of what or
who was within. These doors and windows are still quite
beautiful and unique to Timbuktu in Mali. Other items
fabicated by this family inculded bookcases and trunks and
low folding tables and stools. The bookcases were recessed
into the thickwalls of the houses with shelves and and
doors set into the mud consturction. The trunks were
elaborately decorated with metal work as are the doors. The
general style of traditional carpentry is another result of
the Moroccan conquest of the city.
Wood is scarce in Timbuktu and costly to import. Few items
in the past were constructed of wood as described above.
Modern cabinetry and carpentry is not restricted to any
cast or social class. As there is no law prohibiting it
some do attempt to imitate the traditional doors of the
djiam tende. Most carpenters produce plain doors and window
shutters shelves, cabinets, wardrobes, bed frames, chairs
and tables, sometimes elaborate sometimes simple but always
in imitations of western versions. They will also produce
aposltered furniture making wooden frames over which they
layer peices of foam mattress and cover the works with
heavy materials in many styles and desings form elaborate
brocades to leopard print.
Farmers It would, perhaps, be more
accurate to use the term cultivators are the local
population has long cultivated certain foodstuffs without
actually farming the land. In the west where the lakes are
found Tamacheq nomads established camps of their Bella
slaves to cultivate millet, sorghum and wheat for them.
Along the rivers and in areas where the seasonal rains
irrigated the ground enough to permit growing without
manual watering of the plants millet and sorghum were also
cultivated along with watermelons. This was also done by
the Bella or by low caste Songai. Upper caste sedentary
families may have had field but they also had slaves or
could pay labourers to work them. Today it is these same
low caste and former slave caste, mostly Bella, who have
the knowledge, the skills and the habitude of cultivation
so it is they who still engage in the activities and
provide those items on the market.
Today there are many gardening co-operative projects around
town in outlying areas often near area that are or
historically were filled with water during the rainy season
or flooded by the branch of the river that used to come up
to the town. These area may still be damper than most and
if not the projects have financed hand pumps or other means
of irrigation. These gardening projects are devoted to
vegetable gardening: cabbage, tomatoes, eggplant, cucumber,
beets, onions, sweet potatoes, lettuce, carrots, okra and
mint for the tea. Near the river some Christian mission
groups have financed a gardening project that includes and
orchard part they have orange, key-lime, guava mango, and
pomegranate trees. None of these grow naturally this far
north in Mali and there is not near enough to supply the
large population of Timbuktu so the majority of fruit and
even a large part of the vegetables are still imported.
Along the river rice paddies have taken the place of
millet. Around Koriome, port town of Timbuktu and Toya, a
neighbouring village the paddies were part of a project
financed by a Belgian foundation called Isle de Paix in the
late 1970s. Because rice is so successful in feeding the
masses of Asia, it was introduced here as a major form of
agriculture by the French colonials as a cash crop and
method of feeding the masses of Africa. A lot of rice is
produced in Mali, though only a small amount comes from up
here in the North. The fields don’t produce as much as they
could because after the project was completed no follow-up
was done no training in crop rotation to replenish the
soil’s nutrients and no finance management training so that
money would be available to provide fuel much less repairs
for the diesel pumps that irrigate. So depleted soil, and
rising costs of fertilizers and fuel combine to reduce
productivity. Still the rice is of good nutritional
quality, unfortunately the vast majority is exported and
the people eat cheap white rice from Taiwan. Also the
drying lakes and the switch to rice production along the
river has reduced the capacity to grow millet and sorghum
both nutritious and less water needy crops that used to be
the traditional staple of the Malian diet.
During the Rainy season watermelons are still cultivated a
few kilometres out of the city limits of Timbuktu. These
are native to this area and while it is counterintuitive
that such water-filled fruit could thrive in such a dry
place in fact this area works well for all the fruit in the
mellon/gourd family be it watermelons, other varieties of
melons, squash, cucumber, gourds etc. The watermelons
produced come in all shapes and sizes both round -small as
a tennis ball, big as a basketball or anything in between,
and the typicall elongated shape you carry in both arms. It
is a common site to see donkeys loaded down with burlap
sacks bulging all over with the watermelons stuffed in
them.
Besides the cultivation of these few items the people would
also gather the leaves, seeds, and fruit of wild plants
that were edible or considered to have medicinal
properties. These they also sell on the market. One of the
most used of these is the wild hibiscus plant whose leaves
are used in one of the staple dishes and whose flowers make
a soothing tea or a refreshing beverage both parts are high
in a large number of vitamins and minerals. This plant in
now being cultivated in the lake region to meet the demand
of the rising population.
As stated above almost all cultivator/gatherers are of Low
caste/ Bella origin. There is no legal restriction on who
can engage in these activities but they are the ones who
have inherited the knowledge and are also the most common
beneficiaries of financed projects either by NGOs or
religious missions. They actually constitute a majority of
the population and have almost complete political and
economic control of the city but due to the negative
connotations associated in the western mind with their
status as former slaves or the descendants thereof they
elicit and exploit the sympathy and guilt of those funding
foundations.
Fishers The fishers in the area are still,
as they have always been, the Bozo. A race apart they have
remained apart. they live in small settlements along the
river and sometimes in temporary camps on the sand bars
that surface when the water levels decrease. They work
mostly from small pirogues, the smallest are made of a
single large tree trunk hollowed in the fashion of a dugout
canoe, that they navigate with the help of a long bamboo
pole. During high water the boats may be equipped with a
rudimentary sail of stitched together rice sacs and aided
with a short wide paddle to use as both rudder and
supplementarity source of propulsion. Their fishing boats
rarely have the covered area made of woven mats curved over
a frame that provide share for the passengers, which would
only get in the way of their enterprise, those are used for
boats transporting goods and passengers.
The fishermen use a variety of methods to catch their fish.
The two most common types are as follows. Some string long
nets across the river with bits of flotsam attached as
floats and buoys. After the appropriate time has passed the
two ends of the net are pulled to shore and then slowly,
with the help of who ever is around the ends are tugged and
tugged finally bring the middle bit with the catching up
onto land. Others use a circular net with weights around
its outside edge the net is carefully gathered in and the
skilled fisherman standing in his boat has just the
technique to hurl it so that it opens out into a full
circle before it drops into the water leaving him holding a
cord attached to the middle. after a short pause he pulls
this back into his boat empties whatever catch their may
have been and throws it again.
Nets are woven in various sizes and of various materials
some have a very fine mesh and with these are caught some
sort of minnow only and inch or two long which are fired
and eaten whole like crisps without gutting, scaling,
beheading or any of the other cleaning to which larger fish
are subjected. Catfish and Tilapia are the main large fish.
Though truly large specimens are not so easily seen. The
river is, of course, becoming overfished with too many
people along too much of its length from the highlands of
Guinea on down to Gao trying to make their living in this
manner. One method of dealing with this is what they call
the quarantine. The fishermen will agree on an area of the
river, or perhaps a seasonal arm of it avoid fishing for
some months then they hold an event which the call the
quarantine, Anyone who wants to fish at this time buys a
ticket which give the right to fish in the quarantined area
for the following 24 hours. It becomes and impromptu
fairgrounds. The river is filled with boats fishing at all
hours the shore is filled with their families who are there
to take up the relay, to provide quick food to their
fishermen or to sell the catch on the spot as it comes in.
Also drawn to the area are vendors of all types, food
snacks, beverages, fried fish, but also other things that
might be quickly useful or desirable to people just come
into cash. And then there are the purchasers of fish. Some
private parties come seeking a good deal on fresh fish for
their family but mostly it is the fish vendors of Timbuktu
and who will purchase the days catch from the Bozo and sell
it in the markets and on the street sides throughout the
city.
The fishmongers in Timbuktu are all Bella they have deals
with the Bozo and purchase in quantity from the fishermen.
They then mark up the price and resell in the markets. For
a fee they will also gut, clean, and descale the fish for
you. In doing this they will cut of the fins which are
inedible but they leave the head as people will eat what
ever meat it on it and suck the bones clean. Others take
their fish and fry them selling them as street food to
passers by on the main thoroughfares or in their
neighbourhoods.
“Forgerons” In French this term literally
means smith, from the same root as the English word Forge.
This term has been given especially to the artisans of the
Tuareg who do not have several guilds but one single group
who does all of them. The Tuareg forgerons are more than
simple smiths. The Tuareg are nomads, herders warriors,
sometimes scholars and merchants but they were not
labourers. They depended on their vassals and serfs to do
the labour. Some of their captives were skilled in
jewellery and tool making. It is speculated that among some
of the tribes who emigrated from the Arabian Peninsula that
they brought with them their captives some of who were
Jewish and well skilled in the fine work and today’s
forgerons are the descendants of these. With no like skills
of their own the Tuareg depended on their forgerons to
provide tools, utensils, jewellery etc. They do work the
forge to produce metal implements, weapons and jewellery
but they also work wood to make tool handles, mortars,
pestles, saddles and other items. The wives of the
Forgerons do leather work making elaborately decorated
cushions, bags, water skins as well as parts to complaint
the craft of their husbands, sheaths, harness, leather
covering for the saddles. The forgeron also plays the role
of griot, praise singer and spokesman for the tribe or
family which he serves. The forgerons is not exactly a
slave (was not when slavery was still practised) but lower
on the social scale than a vassel, yet is still attached to
a given family,. Theirs is a strange relationship of
interdependence and mistrust. The Forgerons are consider
low without honour and lacking generally in dignity
principles and morals but they are also treated carefully
for they wield a certain power privy as they are to the
family secrets though they are mistrusted no one quite
dares bring them to task for anything. They are aware of
this impunity use it to best advantage manipulating the
nobles to gain the most they can from them.
Herders From the establishment of Timbuktu
to as a campsite until present the population has kept
animals. Even the sedentary population that slowly
established itself taking over Timbuktu from the nomads who
are credited with having first created the camp mostly have
nomadic origins. Those origins cling tenaciously. The
nomads are herders in fact in this part of the world it is
impossible to live the nomadic life with out a herd on
which depends their subsistence. It is however, a mbious
strip of existence since having many animals in this
environment demands a nomadic existence, a constant
movement in the search of new pastures until the old ones
have recovered and can again be exploited. The people who
settled in the city of Timbuktu may have settled into the
sedentary life may also be merchants of farmers but the
need for a few animals for a regular supply of meat and
more importantly milk has not been lost. In most of the
household of the city you will find at least a single goat
tied up in a corner of the yard. Even wealthy families with
fancy two story homes in concrete will likely have a few
animals in the yard. If there are just a few they may be
let loose to run the streets of the town in search of food
and come home on their own in the evening. For those who
have larger numbers of animals they send them outside the
city for grazing.
The animals of many households are gathered together under
a single herder who follows them throughout the day leading
them to pasture and protecting them as needed, aiding with
birthing and so on. The herders are paid a sum per animal
that they take on. In the past when families had larger
herds they may have had a family herder among their slaves.
Today the herders are still issued from the slave casts.
The animals that go west to seek grazing are herded by
Bella herders. Those that go north are Haratin, that is
descendants of the slaves of the moor or Berabish nomads of
the open desert. The nomads that still live the nomadic
life herd their own animals. They keep herds of camels with
lesser herds sheep or goats goats and no cattle. While in
the past these nomadic tribes might have been rich and
powerful with slaves to see to their large herds today they
do it themselves and do not entrust their camels to those
of the former slave castes even if they are present. If a
person with camels to herd needs to give their care to
another it will be another member of his family. His camels
will join his brother’s, cousin’s, uncle’s herd.
Goats are of the least importance in terms of prestige.
While their milk is enjoyed fresh, soured, or as cheese
they are slaughtered for meat only when one does not have
the means for a sheep. This is partly because they are
smaller than sheep so provide less meat and partly due to
the religious significance of sacrificing rams. It is rare
to find goat meat on the market in the butchers stalls.
Private families will slaughter one when they lack the
means for anything more prestigious or when they have an
old one that is no longer productive and wish some meat but
do not require that the offering be so prestigious.
Sheep are also used for milk production but are much more
in demand for meat. Large rams are particularly important
at the times of the religious festivities where each family
tries to acquire one for sacrifice and feasting. Female
sheep are also occasionally slaughtered but only those to
old to produce milk or offspring. Neither rams nor
billygoats are castrated since they are small enough to
manage even with an excess of testosterone and there is no
effort to manage the breeding of the females they are left
to graze together and become pregnant at will. Only after
the birth is some effort made to control mothers so as to
control the kids’ and lambs’ nursing so that the majority
of the milk is available for human consumption.
Cattle are of great import to the Fulaani herders who don’t
go so far as to make them sacred but it seems close to it
at time. They tend to keep them only for milk resisting
selling or slaughtering of them even when in dire need of
money or food, preferring to keep this prestigious source
of wealth intact at all costs. It goes to extreems
sometimes when droughts are causing animals to die of
starvation and they still won’t sell or eat them so they
just loose them. It also result in a large percent of the
herd being males who do not bring milk, yet consume much of
the grazing. The local population does not put so much
emotion into their cattle they raise them for milk and
meat. In this area Fulaani herders are a minority and the
locals focus their efforts on goats and sheep as cow
require a lot more grazing area per animal and more water
to drink. Therefore cattle are not so abundant that fresh
milk is readily available in the markets, most of it going
directly to the owner’s family. A lot of beef is sold in
the markets, however, and is, in fact, less expensive than
sheep meat as there is considerably more of it per animal.
Private slaughter of cows happens on the rare occasion of a
big wedding party by a rich family planning to feed a very
large number of guests. People do not bother to castrate
the bulls either you can recognize ones that tend to be
troublesome by a long cord trailing from its horns or a
long stick attached by rope around its horns permitting the
herder to grab it and control it more easily when it
becomes unruly. Check out the mini documentary about
herding on the movies page
Jewellers are a very specific kind of
smith. They specialize in the fine work of silver and gold
and ornamentation.
There are limestone deposits near Timbuktu. This has become a popular facing material in the last few centuries give Timbuktu a unique look in Malian architecture. The limestone is cut out of the quarries in rough blocks and transported to Timbuktu like banco save the saddles for carrying the stone on donkey back are inverted pyramids made of sticks lashed together with leather thongs. The masons working on a given construction finish shaping the blocks making them a uniform height of 16 cm and flatting off top bottom and one face that will be visible.
Only certain masons specialize in making the bread ovens. They are not made of bricks but a mix of mud and curved pieces of broken water jars. I presumed the fired clay helps five form and strength to the structure as well as aiding in holding in the cooking heat.
The masons, like the tailors, butchers and voodoo practitioners are believed to have significant magic powers and interactions with the supernatural. Despite the decline of such beliefs in some of the other guilds it remains strong for these groups. The belief is so strong that no one dares ask a mason other than the one how build their house or one of his descendants to work on their house. A mason will have put magic or talismans into the construction of the house such that if anyone dares touch it it will fall and the person doing the work will be killed (not with murder but the house will collapse on him or he will fall off the roof to his death etc.) thus no other mason will risk his life to work on a house another mason built and no home owner will risk the collapse of his house by calling in another mason. This of course affords the masons considerable opportunities to profit from the home builders. If the home owner is not vigilant his mason will use inferior materials or do inferior work expressly so that he will be recalled soonest to repair the home.
The masons are mostly of the gabibi social group that is low caste, former slaves. However some of the master builders or architects are some point were imported from Morocco and are of arab decent. This permits the masons to claim nobility to those not familiar with the history. However their intimate relation with sorcery, and voodoo like black arts like the butchers and tailors belies an arab origin that would have closer ties with Islam. The masons’ wives are also attributed with magic powers sometimes considered stronger than the man’s.
Mechanics Again, a trade that has only recently come to Timbuktu but with the coming of the French came the first vehicles followed by the importation of western machines and vehicles, come the need for someone who can repair them. Mechanics in Timbuktu and all of West Africa are very skilled in jury rigging. They can do more with a broken flip-flop and some iron tie-wire than a dealership mechanic can do with a whole garage full of specialized parts. In fact replacing a part is the last recourse for most mechanics whose clientele rarely has the means to buy or time to wait for a new part to be imported. Not to mention that many of the vehicles used here are so old that their parts are no longer readily available; old Land Rovers left over form the French occupation.
Merchants Commerce has been one of principle reasons for Timbuktu’s existence since shortly after it was founded. Located at almost the furthest point north on the Niger river before it turns south again to empty into the ocean from Nigeria, it is the ideal place to start across the desert for historically important commercial centres in Morocco, Algeria and Libya. Goods from the south could be easily transported down the river to Timbuktu where they were stored, traded, sold and eventually taken on caravans north. Goods from the north including those coming across the Mediterranean from Europe or along the ancient spice routes from the near, middle and far east would arrive first in Timbuktu where they were stored before heading along the river to Gao or Djenne and from there spread across West Africa. The merchants who engaged in this trade, who made the long caravan trecks north. who had storehouses and shops in Timbuktu and Djenne are usually classed as Arabs or Moors. Some of the were many were of the berber decent of northern Africa who had mixed with the Arabs after the later spread across north Africa during he spread of Islam, Many coming from Tripoli or Markhesh to spend 6 months trading in Timbuktu before returning for a like time in their home towns. These same Berbers and Arabo-Berbers had spread though southern Europe during the almorvodian empire facilitating trade for thier factors spread from Tangiers to Mareckesh to Timbuktu. Jews were also prolific and successful businessmen at this time and many established enterprises in Morocco some even in Timbuktu. The last of the “Arabs” and many of the Jews were kicked out or fled form Spain during the time of the Inquisition under the reign of Ferdenand and Isabella. While many of the Jews went east to join others or their kind in Eastern Europe the “arabs and berbers” as well as a part of the Jews went south into North Africa where they continued their business ventures. The Jews spred even into Malian territory where there is reputed to be the ruins of a synagogue west of Timbuktu but their culture/religion was lost since it is passed through the mother while the locals consider a child’s heritage to come from it father. Yet it allows some people of Timbuktu to legitimately claim Jewish heritage, though they are practising Muslims.
Very little in the way of Goods are exported through Timbuktu today, all of it from the north. Rumours of Clandestine immigrants weapons and even drugs crossing the desert to enter Europe via the North African Countries filter in mostly from western media sources. I don’t deny the probability of these but the merchants of Timbuktu likely have little to do with it, the trail of such things, even the immigrants, starts much farther south and ends much farther north than Timbuktu. It would not be surprising if some of the same transporters have at one time or another transported illegal items across the desert. When a man needs to feed his wife and children he will not worry about the nature of the load he is paid to transport only the earnings he will have when he is done. However this is all speculation on my part and has no basis in any event I have witnessed or fact confided to me.
Salt still comes from the Taoudenit mines in the north into Timbuktu and beyond to Mopti, Dogon County and perhaps even further. This is the only commerce that still regularly used caravans of camels to operate see the page on the Azalai for more details. Merchandise is still sought in the northern countries and brought to Timbuktu and from there moved south to the rest of Mali. Due to the conflict over the ownership or autonomy of the Western Sahara and the strained relations it has caused with Algeria there is no longer a direct trade route to Morocco. Moroccan goods may be brought by merchants who go to Mauritania. Other merchants go to Algeria or Libya. Today however this is done with big diesel trucks rather than camel caravans. occasionally a caravan comes in from the Western Sahara by residents of that country who are familiar with the mined areas and in need of trade. Mali being a land locked countries imports are not easy to obtain they must either be shiped into a port in Senegal, Guinea, Ivory Coast etc and trucked overland to Bamako then another further 1000 km to Timbuktu or from merchants to go overland to countries like Algeria, which is actually much closer some of the goods are then trucked 1000 more kilometeres south to Bamako where they are still welcome. Algeria in particular manufactures large quantities of food items, pasta, powdered milk, candies, cookies, powdered milk, fruit juices, canned foods, etc.
All merchants who cross the desert are descendants of the same people who have been doing it for centuries. The black africans have taken on a significant portion of the trade tot he south both on the river and driving the trucks that go to Bamako and on. None, however are comfortable with the desert and crossing it. Even in motorized vehicles it is still dangerous still easy to get lost or to run out of water. Also some of these merchants risk there lives in armed chases avoiding the official boarder crossings and fleeing the customs officers to avoid paying duty on the goods they bring. While this is illegal and should be discouraged from an official point of view it is also what make staple goods affordable in Timbuktu.
Commerce is still much practised in Timbuktu. While trucks are used more and more there most economical way to move goods from the south is by boat. Today all but the smallest boats are motorized with outboard propeller motors rather than a combination of oars, poles and sails. The merchandise brought into Timbuktu is mostly intended for local consumption there being much easier ways for more distant places to acquire goods produced in the south of West Africa. If it moves on from Timbuktu it is only to be distributed to smaller towns and villages in the Region.
Goods brought fall into two main categories. There foodstuffs produced in southern Mali or West Africa fruits, vegetables, shay butter, soap from peanut and other locally produced oils herbs, spices. Trade in these items falls heavily in the hands of the Black Africans particularly the women. In Timbuktu the low class Songai and the Bella women collect the sacks of goods that they accompanied up the river or which came off the truck and go off to sell it under a shelter in the market places or out of their homes or they put it on theirs to offer door to door. These women do not have the education or the means to do major commercial operations but they are hard workers who are willing to do what it takes to feed their children. They have a strangle hold on this part of the market they have always served in this capacity and are therefore best placed to do it they have the skill and familiarity the contacts the contracts with the fishermen their relatives produce or gather the foodstuffs. They also dominate the house wares market that of plastic goods and stainless steel and enamelled serving dishes. Imported luxury items, appliances, building supplies, as well as non perishable foods stuffs from North Africa, the Middle east or Europe are the provenance of the so called arabs. These same berber and Arabo-Berber who have been doing the majority of commerce since Timbuktu became a commercial centre. Despite minority status, marginalization, droughts, rebellions, persecution they have many times lost everything but they start over and manage to succeed again. They are skilled negotiators and willing to work hard rather than wait for hand outs or someone else to fix their problems. They also have an ethic of inter-aid; one who has succeeded willingly loans the start-up funds to another to be paid back when he can or in kind by helping another in the future.
Porters There does not seem to be a guild or any specific restrictions to this occupation, however like most manual labour is dominated by members of the former slave and serf casts or by people is serious financial circumstances with no other recourse. Porters are exclusively male, though they can be of any age from quite young boys through old men. Because even today few people have their own vehicles and taxi service is non-existant the need for some assistance to transport large or heavy burdens still employs an important number of people. Some porters actually personally physically carry the burden on head or shoulders. This is particularity the case in loading and unloading supply trucks or boats at the port. Others load the burden on the back of a doneky. It is also possible to engage a two wheeled card called a pouse-pouse, French for push-push, that are pushed or tugged to its destination. Finally one can hire a donkey cart and driver, The cart is a two wheeled flat bedded affair with two shafts to harness the doneky between, however it is not uncommon for a spare donkey to be tied to the outside of one of the shafts and sometimes one on each side. These extra animals aid only slightly in pulling as they are not properly harnessed. Porters are paid a fee fixed in advance for their labour based on the weight/size of the burden and the distance to take it. It can vary from only 50 or 100 f to a small boy going a short distance with a woman’s groceries to 500 or 1000 francs for a man taking a who cart load to the edge of town. For Porters that load trucks and such the fee may be based on number of sacks/boxes etc carried or may be a daily wage.
Most of the pottery these days is actually produced in the south in towns like mopti stacks of water jars are transported up the river on boats to be sold in the markets of Timbuktu; but there is a village along the river in the region that specialized in pottery. There is plenty of clay in and around Timbuktu that is used for brick making I do not know if it is not of a good quality for pottery or simply not easy to manage since it is completely dried out and would take a lot of extra work to put it into good pottery condition. I have heard that when the river used to come to timbuktu pottery was made here.
In any case pottery has been widely used in this areas for a very long time. jars, vases and other recipients are found intact far out in the desert where no one has lived for centuries. archaeological digs in the regions have also found lots of pottery. These finds as well as those in the desert are of a different style than that made today. Much of it is actually more finely made, more smoothly finished and more delicate looking then today’s works others are course and primitive looking.
In the Fulaani society potters are one of the artisan castes that fall in between nobles and labourers they are on par with weavers.
Shoe Makers
Smiths
Tailors
Weavers
Welders Welding is obviously a new occupation since the craft did not exist until recently even in the west. Yet it has caught on here and is in high demand. With the importation of automobiles and the very rough conditions for driving one of the main occupations of welders/solders is to repair broken parts. Body work on those same vehicles is also in high demand, not for asthetics, but to hold them together from the bruising trips they take. Another key activity of the welders is to make metal doors, gates, and ornamented window grates, Using angle iron, smooth sheet metal and 3/4 inch square pipe as the main components. Others beat used sheet metal or the metal of flattened oil drums, into the charcoal stoves and other items of lesser value. As a new profession there is on restriction on who may perform it. However as with all labour intensive jobs it is more common for the traditional labourers, the low classes, to engage in them. It is also common for Bambara and other immigrants not native to the region to open such workshops.