Mali: The 24 to 1 Ratio

In the recently opened road between Senegal and Mali we were driving fairly fast, but it was getting late. Sweet Potato spotted a nice looking village and we stopped. In our broken French: “Bonjour, ça va?” “Nous peux a rester ici?” Five minutes later, the tent was open, close to some little houses.

Next morning, while preparing to leave, we noticed that only kids and women were around. No sign of men.

Where are they?! From my analytical background, I started to join the pieces:
- We were informed the village had about 300 inhabitants;
- Each man has up to 4 wifes;
- The women get married at the age of 15;

If each lady has 5 kids (trust me, this is not an aggressive assumption!!), then, for each man, there are 24 women and kids around! In other words, a village with 300 people has… 12 men. It is not that surprising we didn’t see many men around!!