Songo Mosque

The first of the villages I visited in Dogon Country was that of Songo. Like many other villages, it has a number of mud-brick buildings (adobe style), including this mosque. The small pieces of wood sticking out, called toron, are used as scaffolding during the annual repairs made to the structure. All mud-brick structures in Mali require annual repairs to fight off the effects of rain and normal wear and tear.

Getting the walk through the villages slowly, is a good opportunity to see how the people live. It's also, a bit repetitive after a while. There are different types of villages - ones that belong to farmers, fisherman, and so on, but generally there is a lot of resemblances across them. Like driving through suburb after suburb in America, they all blend together eventually. If you've never been to the suburbs though, the first few are probably interesting.