Gay Mali News & Reports

" There are gay people everywhere, so I’m sure there are gay people in Timbuktu. But I don’t know any," Amadou, a local English-speaking tour guide, informed me straightforwardly. "It would be hard for them here; they would have to hide it."

I had spent two weeks on the road to the fabled city of Timbuktu as part of an intrepid group of travelers from the appropriately named tour operator Adventure Center (800/228-8747; www.adventurecenter.com). I obviously hadn’t headed there for the gay life. In fact, after a fortnight traveling in the predominantly Muslim West African nation of Mali, I was surprised anyone acknowledged the existence of gays at all. People who have heard of Timbuktu assume it’s a myth, or some murky country in Central Asia. In fact, during Timbuktu’s apex in the 14th and 15th centuries, it was one of the most powerful and wealthiest cities in the world, thanks to the trans-Saharan gold trade.

Nowadays, it’s a quiet outpost with stuck-in-another-era alleys, where quiet men in long robes and head scarves glide by, where the fires of outdoor bread ovens illuminate women’s faces, and the brown spires of mud mosques jut into the cloudless skies, looking like a Star Wars backdrop. Caravans of camels rest on the town’s outskirts after completing the weeks-long trek from the salt mines deep in the Sahara. Timbuktu has no paved streets — ongoing desertification of the region means Saharan sands continually swamp the hazy town like waves on a beach. When the harmattan wind starts up in winter, the place appears almost foggy.

Even though the Islam of Mali is extremely moderate in its practice, Mali does not enjoy the "homosex" found in other parts of the Islamic world. But it should still be on gay travelers’ lists. There is so much more to this country than just the sands of the Sahara. During my two-week sojourn in the country, our tour group spent days floating on a traditional long canoe down the Niger River — Africa’s third-longest. We camped out under the stars along the tranquil banks of the timeless river, hearing fishing boats cast their nets at dawn. We spent a night in the maze-like medieval town of Djenne, home to the world’s largest mud mosque. For four days we hiked around the dramatic sandstone cliffs of the Dogon country in the east-central part of Mali, where isolated villagers have ingeniously built their homes into the face of a 150-mile escarpment. And we caught a glimpse of Mali lurching toward the 21st century in the modern capital of Bamako, where bankers in suits visit traditional healers for prophecies and where women wash their laundry in a river lined with high-rises. The ancient and the 21st century have no problem coexisting in magical Mali.

Getting there
Gay-friendly Adventure Center (800-228-8747; www.adventurecenter.com) offers seven different guided group itineraries through the country, ranging from 14 to 21 days and priced from $1,040 to $2,965. This includes guides, accommodations from four-star hotels to camping, most meals, and in-country transportation. Note that French is spoken in Mali in addition to tribal languages.

Stay
The best hotel you can check into in Mali is the Kempinski Hotel El Farouk (+223/223-1830; www.kempinski.com; $110-250). Perfectly situated on the banks of the Niger River in a quiet part of Bamako, the spiffy 100-room, six-story building feels more like an exclusive cruise ship. Only stay at the generic Sofitel (www.sofitel.com, +223/221-432; $126-$272) if the Kempinski is full.
In Timbuktu, check out the Delais Azalai (+223/292-1163; $52), built to look like a mud fortress on a hill, with simple but comfortable rooms.

Eat
In Bamako, the restaurant of the Kempinski Hotel El Farouk (+223/223-1830; www.kempinski.com; $12-$20) is run by a talented Lebanese chef who serves up grilled capitaine (a local fish specialty), shish kabobs, pan-seared salmon, and even crA me brulee. Great views of the Niger River are gratis.
Try different kinds of couscous in an artistic African ambience at San Toro (+223/221-3082; $8-$15). In Timbuktu, you can catch a cheerful meal of couscous or traditional meat dumplings at Restaurant Poulet D’or (+223/614-5850; $8-13), located inside the Maison des Artisans art market.

Play
Mali is considered to be at the forefront of world music. In Bamako, enjoy live bands in a small courtyard setting at La Savanna (+223/631-4156; $5 cover), which attracts a young urban crowd and some Europeans.
Le Privilege (+223/941-0631, +223/941-0640; $10 cover) is the hot spot du jour, drawing some American soldiers earlier in the evening and a hip, ethnically mixed crowd that boogies to Europop and energetic West African music late into the night. Same-sex couples dance together here, although they are not usually gay.

by Par Jean -Luc
Au Mali un homosexuel a été battu par sa famille, soumis aux mauvais traitements d’un "féticheur" pour le "soigner"et le guérir du mauvais sort, hospitalisé dans un hôpital psychiatrique, interdit de fréquentation de la mosquée par l’Iman, arrêté à plusieurs reprises sous prétexte d’incitation à la débauche et actes amoraux.

Le pauvre homme maintenant a le problème de s,integrer dans la societé d, aller à la mosque pour prier, ou même à visiter la famille à cause de son orientation sexuelle. Mainetenant il est entrain de chercher refuge dans des pays qui peuvent l’accepter tel qu;il est et vivre en paix . Ce qui est dommage c’est que la famille ( sa propre famille) l’a rejeté au lieu de le soutenir.

Nous voyons ces cas surtout dans des pays musulmans comme la Mauritanie , le Soudan, Nigerian …,òu ils ne respectent pas le droit de l,homme , òu les hommos sont mal tratés. Dans ces pays l’hommosexalité est un crime puni de mort.

The aim of the Summit was to empower young leaders from communities around the world to play a stronger role in national, regional and global responses to HIV. Representatives aged under 25, including young people living with HIV, used the summit to explore strategies for bringing about a prevention revolution for HIV and building responses that are energetic, sustainable and youth-driven. UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé spoke to participants at the opening ceremony: ‘You are the most powerful engine we have for transformation and progress’ he said. “Do not let anyone tell you that you are the leaders of tomorrow. You are the leaders of today.’

Bi Zijia, a journalist working for China’s Xinhua News Agency, brought a strong understanding of advocacy and the media to the summit. Bi Zijia has previously worked with UNAIDS as an intern, and tries to promote accurate reporting around HIV in her daily work. During the Summit, Bi co-facilitated the seminar, ‘How to use traditional media to promote the Call to Action globally’ together with CCTV news anchor James Chau and Editor Dwain Lucktung from the UK.

‘Those 150 young leaders come from all sectors, and most of them had zero experience in journalism, so I imagined it would be quite a challenge for us to train them to master the basic skills needed for working with traditional media,’ said Bi. ‘The 2-hour course went more smoothly than I expected, and I was proud of how quickly they were able to get to grips with professional mass media communication skills and technologies.’