Mali's Macarena

After a very enjoyable day/night with my Malian family on Friday, I braved the crowds yesterday with Daline and our friend Mai to go to the taping of Mini- Star.  This is a West African television show that airs each week.  It is also taped in Bamako!  The tapings happen on Saturdays, and for $2 you can attend.  This is the second year of a competition where each young contestant imitates his or her favorite Malian star.  Yesterday’s taping was the semi-final.  I didn't really follow who was who or who they were imitating, but it was amusing, nonetheless.  

The event was quite an experience!  We were in a performance hall filled with middle school aged children who were all wild about these young performers.  Forget Bieber Fever, these kids were screamers!  The show has a theme song and an accompanying dance, called "Mini-Cassé" (it means, literally, mini-broken, and the dance imitates someone dancing with a broken leg.  why?  don't ask me!).  They played the song CONSTANTLY as they were preparing for the concert (for 4 hours) and the kids danced and sang along basically the whole time!  I would liken this song and dance to the Macarena—it’s soooooo cool if you’re in middle school or younger, otherwise it gets really old, really fast.  When the program finally got underway, it was pretty amusing.  Most of the kids were pretty good and I really enjoyed watching the backup singers and dancers!  People got really into the competition and young guys sold photocopied pictures of all the contestants.  These copies seemed to be the Malian version of foam fingers… you bought the photo of your favorite contestant and then held it and waved it in the air! 

I have included some video and photos from the event below... scratch that, just photos.  The video wouldn't load :( 

This is also a nice time to explain Malian time a bit.  On the ticket for yesterday’s event, the start time was listed as 10am.  However, as they said on TV, and everyone “in the know” could tell you, it wouldn’t start until noon.  But, they would caution, you better get there early!  So Daline, Mai and I got in line around 10 am.  We waited in the sun until a little before 12 to finally get tickets.  We got to our seats at about 12:10.  And we waited.  And waited.  They tested lights.  They played the Mini-Cassé.  They played the Mini-Cassé some more.  We waited.  Finally, at 3:45, the program really got underway.  At this point, Daline and I were so tired and hungry that we had decided to only stay until 4 unless something happened.  We ended up staying until about 5, but the competition still wasn’t over yet!  It was quite the full day affair!  These sorts of things are typical in Mali.  Like on Friday, I told my family I had to leave before dinner, so I got up and announced my departure and they said… “Just a minute, your sister went to get some French fries for you.  You can eat just a little before you leave.”  Thirty-ish minutes later, my sister arrived and everyone sat down to dinner.  Clearly, my dinner plans with a friend weren’t going to prevent me from eating dinner with them, and I ended staying much longer than expected and cancelling plans with my friends!  Just a little taste of the patience I have to remember to cultivate and embrace here in Mali. 

Right now, I am waiting for a friend, Yaya to come and pick me up so I can visit his house.  He is one of Nora’s dearest Malian friends and he is helping me look for an apartment.  He was supposed to be here 25 minutes ago…. Maybe I should call him and make sure he isn’t lost, but probably he just stopped to drink tea or talk to someone he knows.  I think I’ll just try to be patient and let it be.

Daline and Mai at the Mini-Star competition... new friends in the background

Me with Mai and the Mini-Star stage