Scenes from West Africa

by phil | Jul 21, 2011 | W. Africa

This was a “waiting in airports” project. Not much in the way of beautiful hd footage or general cinematography, but I hope you can appreciate some of these scenes, many of which include dancing children. If not, just close your eyes and listen to the music: “Sabali” by Amadou & Mariam (see a previous post about music in Mali for more on them). Sabali means patience in Bambara. Throughout the song, Mariam tells us that patience is worth everything. With that in mind, have some patience when you watch the video, and don’t read into it too much.

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Next up: a bus ride from Bamako to Dakar. Or something else. Maybe a look at the massive thunderstorms that form in the Sahel around this time of year. Hmmm.

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11 Comments

Kyle on July 21, 2011 at 12:45 pm

Nice work, man. Makes me want to head that way.
Reply
- phil on July 22, 2011 at 5:41 pm
  
  thanks kyle. Let me know when you’re coming 🙂
  Reply
Brendan van Son on July 21, 2011 at 4:00 pm

Love it mate… I can’t wait to get to Western Africa… looks brilliant
Reply
- phil on July 22, 2011 at 5:42 pm
  
  you too? awesome. you and kyle can meet me in Mali. Deal?
  Reply
Kitty Antonik Wakfer on July 21, 2011 at 7:30 pm

Got a real kick out of the 2 little girls and the cat on a (hot) tin roof… Chuckled with both, and enjoyed the rest 🙂
Reply
- phil on July 22, 2011 at 5:43 pm
  
  Hey Kitty, glad you liked it. Oh crap, I’m watching it now and realizing that part of the cat got off as did the end of the song!! 🙁
  Reply
Mack Reynolds on July 27, 2011 at 10:46 am

those little girls are cute. i actually recognized part of this song from when they started saying “sabali” the way they did. nas sampled it in a song he did with junior gong marley. very cool to hear the original.
Reply
- Mack Reynolds on July 27, 2011 at 10:52 am
  
  the song is called “patience” if you’re interested.
  Reply
  - phil on July 27, 2011 at 3:56 pm
    
    Yep, the nas song samples “sabali,” which appropriately means “patience” in bambara 🙂 It’s a great sample, Mariam has such a unique voice.
    Reply
pam on August 2, 2011 at 3:30 pm

Phil,
Found you via your Hobart St. story. In fact, sitting on Hobart St. right now.
We like your musical selections from Africa…
Send us some audio and we will post them on JUiCYHEADS!
Pleasant travels.
Thanks.
Pamela Heller
Editor in Chief
Reply
- phil on August 2, 2011 at 9:59 pm
  
  Hi Pam,
  Oh nice!! Do you live on Hobart? I was just visiting a couple of weeks ago. Thanks for the heads up, I will check out the site.
  Take care,
  Phil
  Reply

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