Mud fight in Timbuktu
Posted on 31st January 2018On a recent visit to Timbuktu with the UNESCO Mali team, Simon Bright was able to film the re-plastering of the Djinguereber Mosque. Built of mud nearly 700 years ago (1327) it is still standing today thanks to a thriving community spirit.
Timbuktu had been violently occupied in 2012 by Jihadi forces. They banned music and dance, forced women into extreme fundamentalist clothing and behaviour, and burnt books in this city famous for its ancient libraries. When they were driven out, the city reacted with a powerful celebration of community action, joyously recalling the annual rituals held before the occupation. An all-woman band sang, danced and played drums as young boys and men moulded mud pancakes and threw them up to ‘plasterers’ perched on ladders up the three storey mosque. Clinging to the wooden beams protruding from the turrets, the men gave the magnificent mosque a new coating of mud to protect it against the rains. It all turned into a good-natured mud fight and Simon Bright, the camera man from Zimbabwe, also received a good re-plastering.