Monday in Djenne - Helle Gammelgaard

The best time to visit the town is definitely on the weekly market day – Monday. Traders from the whole region come to Djenne with wagon, car, truck or boat. It begins early morning in the square in front of the mosque, where deep holes are made in the sandy ground for the posts that holds the tarps of the many stalls. “We do this every Monday. Everything is taken down and the holes will be filled tonight,” said one of the workers in square.

They're trading whole loads of lemons for the town's merchants or a few plantains for tonight's dinner. Everybody is unloading something, from potatoes to digital watches. Fabrics in all colours and patterns and clothes in various sizes were hanging like tapestry between the tarps along the many temporary walking streets. Used shoes, washed and polished –maybe they will be sold that Monday. Small stalls were selling Chinese tea, raw ginger, painkillers and cigarettes. Yellow and purple kola nuts; the caffeine containing seeds from the kola tree is chewed here for their hallucinating effect, but are also used for manufacturing the soft drink cola.