Put simply, a marketplace is where sellers and buyers meet. In Mali and Senegal there are markets of every size and shape. Most of the larger markets are located in the cities and can extend over large areas. The village markets are smaller. But there are also smaller markets in the cities, like the market at the railway station in Dakar where women come by train every week from Bamako to sell textiles, cosmetics and soap.
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| Lively market scene |
The market is a meeting place for different groups of people. In the large, daily city markets one encounters young and old, men and women, rich and poor, city dwellers and villagers, itinerant traders from neighbouring countries, and tourists. And they bring different ideas and thoughts into the markets. A whole series of social exchanges takes place in the course of buying and selling in the marketplace. New acquaintances are formed here, and friendships are renewed. Information circulates among some of the participants about prices and the availability of goods. Others dream of the windfall profits to be had from selling for a good price to eager tourists, who come strolling along, their eyes aglint with the lust to shop.
A village market draws together people from different villages and ethnic groups. Here too, as in the city, there is a meeting of young and old, men and women. People use market day to exchange information of many different kinds. The market is a great opportunity to drink beer together, for those who so desire. There are also possibilities for flirting with those one does not see on a daily basis. Furthermore, market day can be a welcome opportunity for women who live in their husbands' villages to meet family and friends from their own home area.
At first glance, the vast city markets can appear to be chaotic and labyrinthine places. When one looks a little more closely, however, one discovers that order reigns over this chaos. A market can be divided into zones on the basis of the type of goods for sale. In a certain zone one finds stall after stall with cotton cloth. The next zone contains used books for sale, and, after this, there are stalls where religious articles like prayer beads, prayer hats and religious texts are sold. Some markets can be divided according to where the sellers come from, or to which ethnic minority they belong. Another alternative is that sellers from a particular part of the country, and also possibly from one ethnic group, might dominate a market. A market can be distinguished by being composed completely of women sellers, or by men only. In both Senegal and Mali it is usual for women to sell textiles, clothes, fish and food, while men sell electronic goods, religious effects, household furnishings, and tourist art.
A marketplace can be located indoors, outdoors, or both, like Sandaga Market in Dakar. In this market, food and spices are sold indoors, protected from the sunlight, while clothes and other goods are for sale outside in stalls along the streets. The largest market in Bamako is located in the city's most crowded and traffic-ridden street, and there are only a few centimetres for shoppers between the stalls and the traffic. The market overflows into large parts of the centre of Bamako, and people even have stalls on the city's railway line. At first glance it is difficult to see that one is standing right between two railway tracks, until suddenly the train toots, and chaos breaks out as people are forced to take their goods down from the rail line to other areas that are already full of sellers. Fortunately the trains pass at a snail's pace.
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| The vast city markets overflow into the streets. Here from the Sandaga Market in Dakar |
The majority of villages have a market day at least once a week. Some markets follow a three- or five-day cycle, others, a weekly cycle. The marketplace can be an open square in the centre or on the outskirts of the village, or it can be a built structure of wooden poles with a thatched roof. Even if there is not a market every day, it is usual that some people use the place to sell things on non-market days. But only on market days is the place packed with people and goods. There are daily markets in the cities, but on Fridays there are many who close their stalls in order to take part in the Friday prayers. Then the streets fill with Muslim worshippers for a couple of hours, until trade and commerce are able to resume.
It is not unusual to hear that in cities like Dakar and Bamako people are afraid of the marketplaces after nightfall. Many of the city's "crazies", together with down-and-outers, street children and prostitutes, use the markets as a place to live. But it is also said that evil spirits dwell there. Could it be these spirits protect the stalls of the sellers? In any case, it is a fact that many sellers secure themselves against thievery not only with the assistance of large padlocks, but also by placing protective amulets in their stalls and storage cases.
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