Djenné (Bambara: ߖߍ߬ߣߍ߫, romanized: Jɛ̀nɛ́; also known as Djénné, Jenné, and Jenne) is a town and urban commune in the Inland Niger Delta region of central Mali. The town is the administrative centre of the Djenné Cercle, one of the eight subdivisions of the Mopti Region. The commune includes ten of the surrounding villages and in 2009 had a population of 32,944.
The history of Djenné is closely linked with that of Timbuktu. Between the 15th and 17th centuries much of the trans-Saharan trade in goods such as salt, gold, and slaves that moved in and out of Timbuktu passed through Djenné. Both towns became centres of Islamic scholarship. Djenné's prosperity depended on this trade and when the Portuguese established trading posts on the African coast, the importance of the trans-Saharan trade and thus of Djenné declined.
The town is famous for its distinctive adobe architecture, most notably the Great Mosque which was built in 1907 on the site of an earlier mosque. To the south of the town is Djenné-Djenno, the site of one of the oldest known towns in sub-Saharan Africa. It is one of the oldest cities in Mali and West Africa as well as oldest continuously inhabited cities in the World. Djenné together with Djenné-Djenno were designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1988.
Geography
Djenné is situated 398 km (247 mi) northeast of Bamako and 76 km (47 mi) southwest of Mopti. The town sits on the floodplain between the Niger and Bani rivers at the southern end of the Inland Niger Delta. The town has an area of around 70 ha (170 acres) and during the annual floods becomes an island that is accessed by causeways. The Bani river is 5 km (3.1 mi) south of the town and is crossed by ferry.
For administrative purposes the town forms part of the commune of Djenné which covers an area of 302 square kilometers and consists of the town and ten of the surrounding villages: Ballé, Diabolo, Gomnikouboye, Kamaraga, Kéra, Niala, Soala, Syn, Velingara and Yenleda. The population figures are for the commune and include these villages. The commune is bounded to the north by the communes of Ouro Ali and Derary, to the south by the commune of Dandougou Fakala, to the east by the communes of Fakala and Madiama and to the west by the commune of Pondori. The town is the administrative center (chef-lieu) of the Djenné Cercle, one of eight administrative subdivisions of the Mopti Region.
Climate
The weather is hot and dry throughout much of the year. Average daily maximum temperatures in the hottest months, April and May, are around 40 °C. Temperatures are slightly cooler, though still very hot, from June through September, when practically all of the annual rainfall occurs. Only the winter months of December and January have average daily maximum temperatures below 32 °C. Between December and March the warm dry north-easterly Harmattan wind blows from the Sahara. When it blows strongly, the dust-laden wind reduces visibility and creates a persistent haze. The annual rainfall is around 550 mm but varies greatly from year to year. August is normally the wettest month.
Annual flood
In Djenné the annual flood produced by Bani and Niger rivers begins in July and reaches a maximum in October. During this period, the town of Djenné becomes an island and the Souman-Bani channel that passes just to the east of the town fills and connects the Bani and Niger rivers. The year-to-year variation in the height of the flood leads to a large variation in the area of land that is flooded. This has important consequences for the local agriculture. The drought that began in the early 1970s resulted in a big reduction in the volume of water flowing in the Niger and Bani rivers. The effect on the Bani was particularly severe as the reduction in flow was much greater than the reduction in rainfall. The annual discharge of the river has not returned to the volumes experienced in the 1950s and 1960s. It is only during the flood season (mid-July till December) that the Bani river between Djenné and Mopti is easily navigable. At other times of the year, sandbars lie close to the water surface. When the French explorer René Caillié made the journey to Mopti in a small boat in March 1828, he was "obliged several times to unload the vessel in order to pass over sandbanks."
Talo dam
In 2006 the Talo Dam was constructed on the Bani River to irrigate parts of the floodplain near the town of San. The dam is located 43 km west of San and 110 km upstream from Djenné. The dam functions as a weir in that water can flow over the top of the retaining wall. The construction of the dam was highly controversial. The environmental impact assessment commissioned by the African Development Bank was criticised for not fully taking into account the hydrological impact downstream of the dam. The 0.18 km3 of water retained by the dam represents 1.3% of the average annual discharge of the river (the average for the period 1952–2002 is 13.4 km3). From the published information it is unclear how much of the total discharge will be diverted for irrigation and, of the diverted water, how much will drain back into the river. The downstream effect of the dam will be to delay the arrival of the annual flood and to reduce its intensity.
Djenné dam
In May 2009 the African Development Bank approved funding for an irrigation dam/weir to be built on the Bani near Soala, a village within the commune situated 12 km (7.5 mi) south of Djenné. The dam is one element in a 6-year 33.6 billion CFA franc (66 million USD) program that also includes the building of a dam on the Sankarani River near Kourouba and the extension of the area irrigated by the Talo dam. The proposed Djenné dam will retain 0.3 km3 of water, significantly more than the Talo dam. It will allow the "controlled flooding" of 14,000 ha (35,000 acres) of the Pondori floodplain (on the left bank of the river to the south of Djenné) to allow the cultivation of rice and the irrigation of an additional 5,000 ha (12,000 acres) for growing 'floating grass' (Echinochloa stagnina known locally as bourgou) for animal feed.
History
Djenné-Jeno
Lying 2.5 km (1.6 mi) south-east of the present town is the archaeological site of Djenné-Djeno, meaning 'old Djenne', one of the earliest and most important urban sites in West Africa. The name of the town itself was Djoboro, and it was founded by Soninke immigrants from the Wagadou region during an increasingly dry period that made the Inner Niger Delta more habitable. Excavations undertaken by Susan and Roderick McIntosh in 1977 and 1981 indicate that Djenné-Jéno was first settled around 200 BC. Oral traditions recount a legendary founder named Maafir, who was from Yemen and descended from the Biblical and Quranic figure Esau. Djoboro developed into a large walled urban complex by between 300 and 850 AD. It estimated city and its environs, including the later site of modern-day Djenne, had approximately from 10,000 to 26,000 inhabitants in 800 CE. 25 chiefs ruled the city before the coming of Islam in the late 600s, although Siigha, the first Muslim ruler, is also presumably mythical, considering his supposed connections to companions of the prophet Muhammad.
Preliminary archaeological excavations at sites within modern Djenné indicate that the present town was first settled after 1000 AD. Oral traditions, failing to distinguish between Djenne and Djoboro, claim that it was founded in 635 around the home of a powerful djinn, Shamharoush, who had been blessed by the prophet Muhammad. The name 'Djenne' derives from jannah, the Islamic paradise.
After 1100 AD the population of Djenne-Djeno declined and by 1400 AD the site had been abandoned. Many smaller settlements within a few kilometres of Djenné-Jéno also appear to have been abandoned around this date. The cause of this demographic collapse is unknown, but may have included new diseases arriving in the area through trans-Saharan trade, or warfare. Djenne, however, was fully occupied, and survived as a center of regional trade.
Mali Empire
Djenne had a complicated relationship with the Mali Empire, which rose to power in the 13th century. Seventeenth century indigenous chronicles give conflicting accounts of the status of the town. Al-Sadi in his Tarikh al-Sudan claims that the Malians attacked the town ninety-nine times but that Djenné was never conquered while the other major chronicle, the Tarikh al-fattash, describes the chief of Djenné as a humble vassal of the Malian emperor. Djenné was probably a tribute-paying sometimes-vassal, with recurring episodes of conflict and commercial coercion pitting the city-state's military and economic prowess against the powerful Malian state, which controlled most of the trade routes in the area.
The first direct mention of Djenné in European sources is in connection with the trans-Saharan trade in gold, salt and slaves. In a letter written in Latin in 1447 by Antonio Malfante from the Saharan oasis of Tuwat to a merchant in Genoa, Malfante reports on what he had learnt from an informant about the trans-Saharan trade. He lists several 'states' including one called 'Geni' and describes the Niger River "Through these lands flows a very large river, which at certain times of the year inundates all these lands. This river passes by the gates of Thambet [Timbuktu]. ... There are many boats on it, by which they carry on trade."
Songhai Empire
In the fifteenth century the Portuguese established trading-posts along the Atlantic coast of West Africa in an attempt to tap into the overland trade in gold bullion. It is from Portuguese sources that we learn a little more about the town. With the Mali Empire in retreat, Djenne may have fought a war against the rising Songhai Empire under Sonni Sulayman Dama, a conflict whose echoes were reported by Diogo Gomes on the Gambia River. In 1471, Djenne was conquered by Sonni Ali soon after his seizure of Timbuktu. The siege lasted approximately 6 months. The flooding of the Bani protected the city, but also allowed Ali to bring his powerful river fleet to bear, blockading the city until. The sultan died during the siege, and his young son made peace with the Songhai and his mother married Sonni Ali, establishing the city's high political position within the empire. Djenne did not support Askia Muhammad I when he rebelled against Sonni Ali's successor Sonni Baru, but quickly acquiesced to his seizure of power.
Under the Songhai, Djenne functioned as one of the key hubs in a thriving trade economy centered on the middle Niger river valley, with a population of approximately 40,000 people. Duarte Pacheco Pereira, a sea-captain and explorer, mentions Djenné in his Esmeraldo de situ orbis which he wrote between 1506 and 1508: "...the city of Jany, inhabited by Negroes and surrounded by a stone wall, where there is great wealth of gold; tin and copper are greatly prized there, likewise red and blue cloths and salt ..." The Portuguese historian João de Barros, writing in the 1520s, mentions Djenné and the export of gold from the island of Arguin off the coast of present-day Mauritania: "Genná ... which in former times was more famous than Timbuktu ... As it is further to the west than Timbuktu, it is usually frequented by peoples of its neighbourhood, such as the Çaragoles [Sarakolle i.e. Sonike], Fullos [Fulani], Jalofos [Wolof], Azanegues Ṣanhāja, Brabixijs Barābīsh, Tigurarijs [people of Gurāra], and Luddayas [Ūdāya], from whom, through the Castle of Arguim and all that coast, gold came into our hands."
Salt was mined at Taghaza in the Sahara and transported south via Timbuktu and Djenné. Gold from the Akan goldfields in the forested area between the Komoé and Volta rivers was traded at the town of Begho (Bitu) and then transported north through Djenné and Timbuktu and across the Sahara to North Africa where it was exchanged for merchandise such as cloth, copper and brass. However, by the early sixteenth century, the Portuguese had established trading posts along the African coast and were shipping large quantities of gold from Elmina in present-day Ghana. This maritime trade competed with the trans-Saharan gold trade.
Between the 14th and 17th centuries Djenné and Timbuktu were also important centers of Islamic study, in addition to their roles as entrepôts. Under Songhai administration, the city was led by the Jenne-koi or king, but also had a Jenne-mondio who answered to the Askias and was in charge of collecting taxes and customs duties.