The Woman on the Moon

While back in the states we hear talk about “the man on the moon”, here in Mali, there’s talk of “the woman on the moon”. One full-moon night in Banankoro (where I stayed with a Malian family for most of my Peace Corps training), my host sister pointed out this female figure carved out of moon craters. At first, I explained to my sister that what I saw was the tilted face of a laughing jolly man. I told her that he had a dimple, one eye that was darker than the other, and that if we could see his body he probably had his hand placed upon his big round belly. She laughed at me imitating the jolly man and then told me that I was wrong. She explained very matter-of-factly that it was the side-angle, full body length view of a woman, with a baby tied to her back, shopping in the market.

The role of Malian women is traditional in that they are expected to do all of the cooking and cleaning and taking care of the children. But what makes it even more difficult is that they are often working in the fields or selling at the market on top of all of their daily tasks around the house. My personal observation is that this is often going on while the man sits at home on his over-turned bucket slurping down tea and hawking loogies. Ok maybe a bit of a generalization... Not to suggest that Malian men don’t work, just to point out that the women seem to have it a bit harder. Needless to say, you’ll never hear a Malian woman complain about her duties.

The way that Malian women are regarded is confusing for lack of a better word. Many Americans that I’ve spoken with would say that they’re repressed especially given the family law that is currently in debate in the country. Many Malian men that I’ve spoken with, however, attribute some sort of invisible and intangible power to the women given their “special” role and their unique bond with the children that the men do not experience. Either way, to me, the Malian women are truly fascinating. These women can multi-task like you’ve never seen before. For example, it wouldn’t be all that uncommon to see a woman walking down the road while unraveling a small child from her back to breast-feed while brushing her teeth all while carrying a five-foot tall bundle on top of her head. Picture it. No joke. They’re like graceful and beautiful robots (if that’s at all possible) wrapped like a birthday present in their colorful Malian fabrics and head wraps.

Above is a pic of me with some of the Samake (my host family) women...