Recently we had a visit from a good friend, Simon and his family. His family left
This visit also gave us the opportunity (excuse) to play tourist in Bobo. We spent a touring around the old Mosque Dioulasso-Bâ and the old town. The mosque was built in 1880 inspired by traditional architecture. It was built by the King of Sya to thank the Muslim leader Sakidi Sanou who helped him defend Bobo from the invading King Tiéba. The mosque is built on the site of an old animist temple, a symbolic gesture to show that Islam was now part of Sya. Islam and Animist religions continue to coexist peacefully.
The old town at the foot of the Mosque consists of two neighbourhoods, Sya and Kibidoué that are surrounded by the rivers Houet and Sanyon. The visit shows the different sacrificial sites and rituals of the animist religion, traditional style houses, a visit to the river where there are sacred cat fish and numerous visits to local artisans.
2 comments:
Hey Alanna,
The pictures of the building with the wood sticking out the sides is one of the animist temples? I remember reading a book 'Sweetness in the Belly' that touched on the relationship between Animism and Islam in Africa, and I found it really interesting.
On another note, that guinea fowl looks an awful lot like a turkey!
Slims!!!
I love to just lose myself in your blog and pretend that I am there with you dealing with scorpions and fowl rather than in a natural light-less cubicle with gray walls and a computer...... that picture of the mosque reminds me so much of a picture I have in my OneWorld Almanac desk calende, of a mosque in Djenne, Mali... really neat. :o) Your scorpion story reminded me of that MASSIVE spider that we found chilling on the wall above my bed one night in Mabaruma... glad to hear things are going well and I am loving reading about your adventures!! (For the record, I know I still owe you a good email.. .it is a work in progress!)
Take care,
Miss you!
Thickeisha
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