# BAMAKO, MALI - heart of West Africa



## nicholbam (Mar 8, 2009)

*BAMAKO, MALI - this time with pictures that work!*

Sorry, technical problems the first time around... didn't know how to find the proper URL for the photos

Bamako is the capital of Mali, a landlocked country in West Africa east of Mauritania, north of Ivory Coast, and south of Algeria. Population of Bamako is roughly 1.5 million, but growing quickly.









view of BCEAO building and a hotel across from Old Bridge across Niger River









downtown near the markets








































































L'Artinasat - the arts and crafts market




































Supposedly, Mali means "hippo" in Bambara


















Nice homes in Faso Kanu


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## Parisian Girl (Nov 6, 2007)

No image/s, nicholbam.


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

I cannot see them too

@nicholbam try to copy/paste the link for the photo; examble:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3545/3353571903_aa651c7334_b.jpg









http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/3353571903/


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## jock in da pool (Apr 23, 2008)

Interesting photos thanks for sharing them :cheers:


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## KQV208 (Jun 19, 2007)

Nice! A city seldom seen.


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## Arik (Dec 27, 2008)

More pics of Mali please!!!  I hope to visit this country one day--- esp. to see Timbuktu and Djenne.


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## snowman159 (May 16, 2008)

Very interesting indeed. Thank you!

I'd love to see some more.


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

Really great pics  indeed; Bamako looks great city


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## steph35 (Apr 28, 2006)

Excellent Nicholbam ! kay:
Many thanks for these shots, hope to see more :angel:

BCEAO building is one of my favourite building from all over the world, design inspired by the Sahelian traditionnal architecure, a jewel !
Is there some other exemples of this contemporary architecture in Bamako or in Mali in general ?


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## Munichpictures1970 (Aug 2, 2007)

Nice pictures
thx for sharing


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## nicholbam (Mar 8, 2009)

More pics from Bamako - these come primarily from the neighborhoods of Badalabougou, Kano Fasu, and Sogoniko, all on the south side of the Niger River opposite of downtown Bamako.

Note that Bamako gets very dusty, so sometimes the sky is rather dark.

A view of the Niger River









Badalabougou has a number of beautiful mosques













































A not uncommon scene









Don't know what this is going to be, but there are a lot of unfinished buildings here









The next few are from Badalabougou Est



























These homes are in Faso Kanu


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## Matthias Offodile (Apr 16, 2005)

nice pics but the heart of West africa, as you say?

just give me a minute until I pick myself up off the floors.:hilarious


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## nicholbam (Mar 8, 2009)

Matthias Offodile said:


> nice pics but the heart of West africa, as you say?
> 
> just give me a minute until I pick myself up off the floors.:hilarious


You can get yourself off the floor, Matthias - all I meant was that it was geographically in the middle.

But thanks nonetheless for the comment - it got my thread back at the top of the page.


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## Matthias Offodile (Apr 16, 2005)

the you should have stated ..otherwise it is misleading!

Keep the pics coming!


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## Clay_Rock (Jun 1, 2005)

Great photos! Thanks for posting them.


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## **RS** (Jul 13, 2008)

Beautiful city! :cheers:


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## MNiemann (Sep 5, 2007)

This is my favorite thread that anyone has started in a long time. I love the fact that you showed such an exotic, foreign city that most will dream of but never actually travel to. I love everything about Mali, the history, the clothing, the desert, the fact that it is a crossroads of 2 major african cultures, the music... Bamako just seems like such an intriguing place and I love that you captured it in such beautiful, colorful pictures.


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

Thanks for those updated shots @nicholbam kay:


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## nicholbam (Mar 8, 2009)

More photos from Bamako - the first batch is just west of downtown, followed by more photos from residential neighborhoods south of the river.










This is a park that runs along the Niger River









The old bridge









Along the Niger River






















































2 more of BCEAO


















Some views of the river from the south side


















In the neighborhood of Sogoninko



























Back to Badalabougou




































Thanks for the comments everyone. I'll post more photos from downtown tomorrow!

To Steph35: I don't know if there are other buildings based on the same idea as the BCEAO building - I haven't really been looking for it, though, because you're the first to point out that it was designed to look like a jewel. I'll keep my eyes open!


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## nicholbam (Mar 8, 2009)

By the way, I want to say one thing: I am taking and posting a lot of photos of nice houses, but I don't want to give an exaggerated impression of the wealth of this place. Mali is a developing country, and there is poverty everywhere. I haven't posted many photos showing this, because I don't feel comfortable taking pictures of dwellings when the occupants are present, particularly when they are living in abysmal conditions, and the clumpings of lower-class dwellings almost always have large numbers of people in the area.

Hopefully, by the time I'm done adding pics to this thread, it will show a balanced view of life here. In the meantime, just keep in mind that I've been walking through some of the nicer neighborhoods in town, and most of the nice homes that I've posted are occupied by foreigners and/or the elite.


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## Denoordrotterdammer (Oct 4, 2003)

Very interesting! I love the statues. they fit so well in the surroundings, just like the skyscraper which torns out like a mountain. I would love to see the historic buildings restorated.


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## nicholbam (Mar 8, 2009)

Ok, more pics:

The Salam Hotel









The Radisson Hotel









A newly completed stretch of road near the Peace Monument, with the new Echangeur (interchange, cloverleaf) visible in the background









A couple random buildings in ACI:


















A close-up of that last one:


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## nicholbam (Mar 8, 2009)

AND STAY TUNED!!! Today is the 50th Anniversary of Malian Independence, and there are a couple of big projects that have just been inaugurated. I'm going to go out today and take some pictures of those projects, and try to match them up with some pictures I took over the past year. I hope to get 5-6 pairs of "Before and After" pics to show some of the changes that have happened here in the past year.


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## nicholbam (Mar 8, 2009)

*BEFORE AND AFTER*

Ok, so after going back and checking, I didn't have as many "before" pictures as I would have liked, but I think the few I have will still be kind of cool. I think I took the three before pictures about a year and a half ago, and I posted them all earlier on this thread. But I'll post them again here so that you can compare.

First, the Peace Monument:

_*before*_









*after*


















Next, the Malibya governmental complex:

*before*









*after*




































And finally, just the view in a residential neighborhood:

*before*









*after*









Sorry, like I said, I just didn't have as many before shots as I would have liked. I guess during the construction phase, I just wasn't terribly impressed.


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

Interesting and very nice new photos from Bamako


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