Cultural Heritage: Africa (12/21)

Cultural Heritage: Africa (12/21)

About 800 years ago, the old population group of the Dogon were dispersed to Mali's bleak, inhospitable East. The rocks of the Bandiagara plateau offered the Dogon protection from persecution. According to a saying in Mali, all roads lead to  Djenné, which is the most beautiful city of the Sahelian Zone, "blessed by heaven and loved by God" and - until today-  is said to be the jewel of the Niger  valley.
In Ghana's earth more gold is hidden than anywhere else in Africa and it is being mined until today.  Even if it is being mined by companies from abroad now, the Ashanti still are proud of "their" gold which was the basis of their pre-colonial civilization and which arose the greediness of the colonial powers like all treasures of Africa's soil did. Three places which Dieter Moor discovers. However, he also visits the Batammariba people which is said to be rebellious and lives in today's Burkina Faso, and he travels up to Koutammakou, the Northern border region between Benin and Togo. Or he explores the "Tsodilo - the mountain of the Gods", how the local inhabitants reverently call a chain of hills in Botswana. They are 450 million years of age - and "Treasures of the World" resurrects them.