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Where it's at
Heading northeast from Ougadougou into the desert,
you reach Gorom Gorom, one of West Africa's most popular
market towns. The market takes place every Thursday and is
Burkina Faso's largest and most colourful markets.
People watching
Gorom Gorom is unique in Burkina with its incredible array
of colourful inhabitants. The Peul Fulani are a cattle
herding people with heavy tattooing and facial scarification.
The Peul woman are renown for having large, black tattoos
over their mouths and beautiful jewellery. The Mossi
are Burkina's major ethnic group and are remarkable for their
history as the only nation over the last 1000 years to not
only resist the imposition of Islam but also the only nation
to successfully defend themselves against the enormous empires
of Ghana, Mali and Songhai. The Tuareg are the famous
desert nomads wrapped in indigo robes and turbans who have
for centuries run trans Saharan camel caravans swapping desert
salt for daily necessities. The Bella tribe were originally
Tuareg slaves, but even after gaining their freedom they continue
their nomadic existence although to a reduced extent.
What's in store
A visit to the Gorom Gorom market is a colourful experience
with all these diverse groups present selling anything from
camel milk and traditional soap to Chinese batteries and Nescafe.
The best day to visit is Thursday. In addition to African
cotton prints, Tuareg silver, beads and leatherwork,
including sandals, scabbards and bags, you'll also
find the food of the desert: dates, lait caille (curdled
milk), sweet tasting tamare (a wild, red bean-like
fruit sold in the form of a ball and used by the nomads as
a thirst quencher) and gib-gib, a large rock-like sweet
made from crushed seeds. The animal market, where camels,
goats, sheep, donkeys and cattle are all traded, is just beyond
the nearby town pond. |
