Dogon Souvenirs

Throughout my travels in Mali, I did come across a number of souvenir shops and sellers. As you would expect, they were all eager to sell to me. While Mali has never really been a power player when it comes to tourism, prior to the outbreak of the Northern Mali conflict in 2012, there actually were about 200,000 tourists a year visiting Mali.

That number fell off a cliff after the outbreak of war, with major tourism operators pulling out of the country. With the US State Department and British Foreign Office advising against travel, you can imagine that tourists became quite scarce. 

Given the context, many people I encountered in Mali were quite happy to see a tourist actually visiting the country. I only came across a handful of others that appeared to be tourists, but some of those might have been journalists or aid workers, so it's quite hard to tell at times. Put it this way, there wasn't any competition for the tourist sites.

This particular shop was well within Dogon Country. Set along the backdrop of the UNESCO World Heritage Bandiagara Escarpment, the Dogon people are known for their mask dances and wooden sculptures. It's also one of the major tourism spots in Mali.