How the Great Mosque of Djenne is Repaired

While it is only the young men from each neighbourhood who take part in the actual plastering of the Mosque, the master masons and the neighbourhood chiefs, the kintigi, oversee the work and direct the complex traffic of the teams as hundreds of youths come running at high speed from different directions with wicker baskets of mud on their heads... 

...but amazingly they never crash into each other. If only the traffic in Bamako (Mali’s capital) could run as smoothly! 

Meanwhile the young girls collect the water by the river. They are only allowed to enter the mosque once a year. Women in Djenne pray at home and the Mosque is reserved for men only, apart from a small section to the side, where older women are allowed to pray. 

 During the crepissage the married women are busy preparing the much needed great meal for the return of the  hungry work force: perhaps the great  Djenne fish speciality Tjon-Tjon, so called because of  the sound the fish makes as it enters the deep frying pan. And about ten o’clock, after about 6 hours, the work is over.

 The mosque is standing freshly plastered, still wet in the morning sun, protected from the elements until next year through this amazing festival which is one of the great unifying events in the Djenne calendar, the day when everyone forgets petty grievances and jealousies and is rightly proud simply to be a Djennenke- a denizen of this great ancient city of Djenne.