The reality of today’s geographical Manding is one of deprivation. it is one of the more underdeveloped areas of Mali. Across the border in Guinea the deprivation is even more tangible. In Siguiri and in Kankan, two of the larger towns of Guinea, there is no electricity, and barely any running water. There are no visible municipal services; people subsist in these towns in a small-scale self reliant manner which reminded me of the favellas of Rio. There are occasional light bulbs run by solar panels or individual generators lighting faintly the streets of the ramshackle shanty town at night,