Mopti - a photo on Flickriver

Mopti

Mopti's bustling river port swirls with a flurry of daily trade and social activity. It is strategically positioned at the at the confluence of the Niger and Bani Rivers in central Mali, just south of an encroaching Sahara. Digital film scan, Asahi Pentax Spotmatic, circa 1976.

A colourful, ethnically diverse gathering of fishermen, farmers, nomads, traders, and boat passengers converges around the open banks of this ancient port. A man in a white billowing boubou chats with a friend by the riverbank while passengers prepare for the slow journey by motorized wooden pirogue to destinations along the Niger River.

Traditional wooden canoes or pirogues with flat-bottomed hulls line the banks. They can be poled or paddled easily and can slip into areas that are inaccessible to other watercraft especially during the dry season when the rivers are low. The journey downriver to Timbuktu takes three days during the rainy season when the river is high enough for travel.

The larger port area is a highly active trading centre where boats plying the essential Niger River unload their cargoes. Everything from chickens, goats, firewood, pottery, and dried fish to huge slabs of desert rock salt are exchanged.

The salt is still transported by camel caravans and, more recently, by trucks deep in the desert region of northern Mali - fifteen days by camel from the remote salt mines near Taoudenni to Timbuktu, then several days by boat upriver to Mopti.

On the other side of the broad delta, distant rows of small rounded straw huts appear to line the shore. They are likely Bozo fishing camps. Tuareg nomadic cattle herders were known to have travelled this far south at the time where they would also set up temporary encampments.

Social Documentary | Street Portraiture

Taken in: Mali / Mopti / Gangal (show map)

Taken on: December 1, 1969

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Camera: NORITSU KOKI QSS-32_33 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	NORITSU KOKI QSS-32_33
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop 24.1 (Macintosh)
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