thousands of residents of Djenné, a historic city in the centre of Mali’s world heritage, participated Sunday in the annual ceremony of parge coating to the great mosque, which will now be powered by electricity of solar origin, have found journalists from AFP. Started before dawn, the rough casting of the mosque, a masterpiece of the architecture of the sudano-sahelian zone and the one of the greatest monuments in the land of the world, was completed as early as 09: 00 (local time and GMT) with the participation of the entire population of the city, buzzing with excitement.
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Faces and clothes covered in mud, the young people of the city are given to heart joy to crépir the most famous monument of Mali. MICHELE CATTANI/AFP
Faces and clothes covered in mud, the young people of the city are given to heart joy to crépir the most famous monument of Mali, situated on an eminence in the centre of the city surrounded by the Bani river, a tributary of the Niger river, about 500 kilometres from the capital Bamako.
This oshtukaturivanija annual with banco (a mixture of earth and water, with rice bran, shea butter and baobab powder) manufactured by the inhabitants, helps to protect the mosque of the weather before the rainy season, sometimes violent.
«The mosque is a symbol of social cohesion, because the whole community participates in the work of maintenance, a factor to link the community and expression of the savoir-vivre-ensemble»
«The Djenné mosque is a symbol of social cohesion, because every year, the whole community participates in the work of maintenance, a factor to link the community and expression of the learning to live together», explained the mayor of Djenné, Balassiné Yaro.
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«today is a great day because this happens only once per year. We consider it as a great celebration, and it involves everyone: the old, young, children,» said Alpha Moye Diakité, the imam of the mosque. In accordance with tradition, a blessing ceremony followed the rough casting.
pargeting annual helps to protect the mosque of the weather before the rainy season, sometimes violent. MICHELE CATTANI/AFP
The modern has this year been accompanied by tradition: a system of electricity obtained from the solar energy to power the great mosque has been inaugurated. The city of Djenné, which has about thirty thousand inhabitants, and which has preserved its traditional houses in the banco, is registered since 1988 by the Unesco on the world heritage list. It has also been placed in 2016 on the list of world heritage in danger, due to its location in a region affected by the insecurity, the Mali as an insurrection of the radical islamist groups.