Desert Merchants
The Infamous Salt Mines of Taodenni, Mali 2005
Men from Mauritania have driven their truck across the featureless sands of the Sahara to sell their merchandise to the miners at Taodenni. I say “featureless” but to denizens of the desert there are features.
They look for wells. Almost insignificantly small piles of rocks on elevated dunes show the way to the well which is marked with pieces of wood or metal pointing skyward. They look at the path of the rippled sand and keep the ripples at a certain angle, that way they drive in the same direction. They watch for ‘landmarks’ perhaps an unusual dune or depression in the sand or changes in the color of the sand.
It takes concentration. The driver will not talk because if he gets lost, all will be lost.
At the Infamous Salt Mines of Taodenni
The man on the left is a Moor who has brought millet by camel caravan to exchange for salt which he will sell or trade on his return trip. The other men work in the mines.