Destiny’s Angel.

When  the faithful break the fast at sunset on the 27^th day of Ramadan : (Laylatul-Qadr : Night of Destiny) a feast is prepared for those who have the means in order to sustain themselves for a vigil and prayer throughout the night.  It is said that during this night Allah sends his angels out over  the world; every soul is counted and everyone’s destiny is decided for the coming year.

Keita and I sat in our garden last night while the prayers and recitations of the Koran drifted across from Djenné’s faithful. The sky was filled with the sparkling abundance of stars which fill the firmament on some nights in the rainy season when the air has been washed clean and all is bright. Maybe Allah’s Angel of Destiny passed and counted us too. But his decisions are not known to humans, Alhamdillulah….

And today we drove through a smiling green Malian countryside from Djenné to Bamako (where Keita will go through some tests), catching the ferry just after sunrise, our journey this time undisturbed by any violent demonstrations of the rainy season. There was market day in Yangasso and for miles before and after we saw the loca1 farmers on their way to this weekly event in their  horse or donkey drawn carts while others travelled atop overloaded lorries.

We listened to a cavalcade of very varied music on Keita’s memory stick selection: from the fabulous Congolese Rochero Tabouley: Caflou Mayayé from the seventies: this is what real , joyous Africa sounds like to me: then on to the Algerian master smoocher Khaled with his immortal lovesong Aisha, followed by the ever charming Burkinabé Daouda Sentimentale’s   funny ballads sung in French and then suddenly Dire Straits with ‘Money for Nothing’- when that was first played on the radio it must surely have been immediately clear with the very first riff that it would be a huge and classic  hit? -U2 followed  with Desire for good s measure. I love travelling with a fine soundtrack!