Cinquantenaire

Mali celebrated its 50th anniversary of independence, the “cinquantenaire”, on the 22nd of September. There was a big military parade (like the Bastille Day parade down the Champs Elysees in France) and huge choreographed show in Bamako which was broadcast on the national TV station. Out in Kenieba, there was also a celebration but it was poorly planned and not nearly as exciting. The women in the shea butter association invited me to walk with them in the Independence Day “parade”. They had been talking about the parade since July, and how we would give the mayor, prefet and other town leaders some of their shea butter as a gift.

Me with some of the shea butter association members

One of the members holding some of the shea butter they made

When I hear that there’s going to be a parade, especially one on Independence Day, I think of groups of people walking down the main road wearing the national colors and spectators watching and cheering. The parade in Kenieba was more like a rally, and could be best described as chaotic. It took place in the big square in the center of town, where I at least a thousand people were crowded around the perimeter to watch some dignitaries speak. You couldn’t hear them over all the noise of the crowd, and definitely not over the extremely loud rifle shots that would randomly go off every few minutes. When it came time to line up for the “parade”, we walked outside the square and crammed together like sardines even though there was nobody behind us. When it finally became our turn to walk in the square, we walked at a brisk pace to the VIPs and then walked right past them. We only realized after we passed the VIP tent that we didn’t give them their gift! So some of us walked against the parade to deliver the shea butter to the VIPs.

Independence Day ceremony in Kenieba

The VIP tent

After the parade I had a delicious feast with one of my neighbors (fried rice with meat, sweet potatoes and other vegetables, and fried plantains), and then went up to watch a soccer game that was apparently the championship game of a tournament that had been going on between different teams in Kenieba. It was surprisingly well organized with each team sporting matching uniforms, and there were referees and linesmen officiating. The field is another story it’s all dirt, with some dried up drainage streams that make it uneven on one entire side of the field. So the game was mostly played on one side of the field. After 90 minutes the game was 0-0, but there were some good shots and it was pretty entertaining. The game took place at the end of the day and the sun was going down so they couldn't play overtime. They finished the game two days later.

These photos of the soccer game were taken with my cell phone camera, so they're not the best quality:

In the end, it was nice to be a part of the 50^th anniversary celebration, which was certainly a moment of national pride. After all, celebrations like this only happen once every 50 years!