The hippopotamus sculpture pictured below stands near the wall that runs along and overlooks the Niger River in Segou's ville-centrale. As the
nation's namesake (mali = hippopotamus) this sculpture's ferocious posture is not to be taken lightly. Much like bears are truly erroneously depicted as cuddly soft comfort toys in the West while being naturally and mindfully wild and leery of humans, hippos are reknowned for biting people in half and protecting their young when humans wander between or wherever else they don't belong.
The
chi'wara, antelope, is the national symbol of Mali and represents the land and its agricultural resources.
The first image below is a reproduction of a print depicting the old village of Segou, or Sikoro, made sometime in the 19th century. Below the print is a photo I took in Sikoro in February 2010 that seems to be of the walled mosque building on the far right of this print, with a now very mature baobab tree. The views are almost opposite with the viewer of the print looking northwest toward the river and the viewer of the photo standing at the river's edge looking southeast. The walled streets seen in the old print are like those of the village of Senoukou which you can see via the link for Week 4.
