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Journal of African trips

Africa, spring 1999 part II

Agelasto
2004-05-21 18:00:16

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A dotted line on a map can indicate just about any type of trail.
The map of West Africa is mostly dotted lines.

For my first two weeks in West Africa (Cote d?Ivoire, Mali and Senegal) I have been able
to avoid the bush taxi altogether. Now I am in southern Senegal in an area known as the
Basse Casamance, a very rural region surrounding the capital city Ziguinchor (where there
is a cathedral that John Paul II and I have visited, in separate trips and slightly different
travel styles no doubt). This region of Senegal is inhabited by a people called the Jola;
heavily Christian, the area is ethnically different from Dakar and the north. Not many
foreign travelers venture to the Casamance any more; the guide books talk about a civil
uprising, which in fact happened more than six years ago when the books went to press.
Yet even now, French military stationed in Dakar are prohibited from visiting the area.
The uprising petered out, leaving only a strong police presence - roadblocks about every
30 kilometers, and few tourists. One of my rules of thumb is to visit places that have
emerged from either civil wars or communism (more on that later). In West Africa
almost every country fits this description.

On the ferry down from Dakar I am still traveling with the widow Ann-Marie, who had
made pals with a French couple on board. We decided to rent bicycles in Ziguinchor to see the countryside. I hired a bike that was almost an identical twin to the cycle I had
owned in China (like most imported durable goods in West Africa, this bike was made in
China). We need to transport ourselves and the bikes to where we wanted to bike, about
60 kilometers from town. For that task we need to hire a bush taxi. The French couple
have brought with them the name of a local guide named Abdou, a young man who had
been recommended to them by previous French ...