Today was a great day— good biking, and ended up in an awesome spot.

Gaoual, where I woke up this morning, is hard to love. Out of the largish Guinean cities I’ve been to it might be my least favorite. It has all of the chaos and filth and noise of a large city with none of the advantages. No atm, no actually nice establishments, very limited electricity and water, etc. The hotel is priced like a nice hotel, but it’s not a nice hotel, even by Guinean standards (they do have the advantage of being the only show in town though). A lot of the chaos and disarray of Gaoual has to do with the ongoing gold rush in nearby Kounsitel, which is a clusterfuck of absolutely staggering scale. Gaoual is the closest thing to a city/hub in the area. I could see it having been a quiet provincial city before all hell broke loose with the 100 thousand plus migrants (low end estimate) that have poured in over the last 1.5 years to mine gold and otherwise profit from the gold mining. The river that runs through town is absolutely gorgeous, and it is in an interesting location, around the edge of the Fouta Jallon highlands. But Gaoual itself is a mess.

So, getting out of town is great. I take the road east towards Labé. I took this road in the opposite direction with Dan in 2015. At the time it was under construction, and we saw numerous Chinese work crews, building bridges and the rest. Today it’s a pretty good road and is the only paved road from anywhere in Guinea to anywhere in Senegal.

After about 75 km I turn off the road to head north, and climb into the heart of the Fouta Jallon. My general destination is a cluster of Jaxanké villages to the west of the town of Yembering. Once I turn off the road, things quickly get really beautiful. Back into the mountainous country.

I arrive in the town of Badougoula about an hour and a half before sunset, and find some very welcoming people here, who are happy to host me. This works out well-- getting to the first Jaxanké village would have been really tight with my available daylight. It is still a significant climb from here to there.

Staying in Badougoula is great, and really interesting. It is a Sarakulé town. This is the first time I’ve stayed with this ethnic group. But I do know a bit about Sarakulé history, because ethnically, they are basically the same people as the Jaxanké. The Sarakulé were the rulers of the Ghana empire, the first major empire of the West African Sahel, which lasted from the 3rd century to about the 13th or 14th century. Once the empire was Islamized a caste of religious scholars emerged from the greater Sarakulé population of the empire— what Lamine Sanneh of Yale University termed a “clerical elite.” This cadre of Islamic scholars developed a unique identity over the centuries, and as the empire dissolved, they migrated south, and adopted a different language— western Malinke. This migratory clerical elite, now speaking a Manding language, these guys are the Jaxanké.

The Sarakulé persist as an ethnic group. The largest concentration is in northwestern Ghana, but there are large numbers in Mauritania, Gambia, Senegal, Guinea, and a few other West African countries.

Beyond this, some more info on the Sarakulé:

-They almost all speak Jaxanké/Malinké, in addition to the Sarakulé language, which is distantly related. I’ve been able to communicate as well with my hosts here as well as in an average Jaxanké village.

-They are especially conservative Muslims, for West Africa. Seeing far more fully covered women here than anywhere else on the trip so far.

- They are absolutely prodigious merchants. The core population area of the Sarakulé is around the Senegal river on the border area of Mauritania, Mali, and Senegal. But I’ve run into big time Sarakulé merchants all over the place. Peanut buyers in SE Senegal, hotel owners in Gambia. But they are active all over the continent, and beyond. It’s really something. Tonight in Badougoula alone, I have met a few people with businesses in Nigeria, Angola, and links to Europe.

Badougoula is a sous-prefecture, and is a pretty nice town. It’s not on the level of Touba, but it’s pretty impressive. Good, prosperous vibes here