In Mali capital, animist sacrifices under ‘Chinese bridge’

In Mali capital, animist sacrifices under ‘Chinese bridge’

"There are evil spirits down there. They take people and their motorbikes and suck them into the river." Boucary Sagara is quite definite. He would prefer to make a lengthy detour rather than cross one of the three bridges that span the Niger River at Bamako. In Mali, the structure is known as the "third bridge" or the "Chinese bridge"-it is the capital's third and most recent crossing of the great river, built and financed by a Chinese company 11 years ago. An old popular and animist belief holds that water djinns-supernatural creatures who can be benevolent or malicious-have always gathered at this precise spot, Souta Dounou, one of the holy places that line the river.

For worshippers, the djinns are still there, lurking beneath the imposing concrete span, 1,600 meters (5,250 feet) long. While the place is sacred to believers, to others it is a place of malevolence. Like many Bamako inhabitants, Sagara prefers to go half an hour out of his way and take another bridge rather than approach this "non-Muslim place." However, the banks under the "Chinese bridge" are far from deserted.

In the dry season, black sandstone rocks smoothed by strong currents poke up above the water level.