Walking through the market in Segou, you see the way the majority of the world works. Local markets where people from the surrounding areas come to sell and buy goods. In some countries, it's a near daily market while in others it's a market in different regional cities each day so the merchants can make their rounds.

One thing is for sure - there are always a lot of goods coming and going in these situations. Being on the Niger River, many of the goods for the Segou market either needs to cross the river, or otherwise arrive by river. The majority of pirogues had motors on them for cruising up and down the river, but a few were clearly for shorter distance trips like the one pictured.