Paper short abstract:

This article empirically explores how Dogon guides, previously involved in Mali’s tourism industry before the crisis, have navigated through radical sociopolitical change and economic scarcity by using their tourism networks for their own mobility to cope with violence and uncertainty.

Paper long abstract:

Over the past decade, Mali has faced a complex crisis, resulting in large-scale population displacement and socio-political instability. However, before this turmoil, Mali enjoyed an international reputation for its tourism industry. Timbuktu, in northern Mali, and the Pays Dogon, in central Mali, are UNESCO World Heritage Sites and were famous for e.g. their hiking, music, masks and art festivals, attracting tourists from all over the world. In the 2000s, thousands of tourists came every year, contributing to a significant financial windfall for the Malian tourism industry. Today, these historic areas are affected by conflict and insecurity, which are widely reported in the international media. Tourism has stopped, forcing Dogon guides and tourism actors to find new professional horizons. This paper empirically explores how Dogon guides previously involved in the tourism industry have navigated through this radical socio-political change and economic scarcity. It shows that many of them used their tourism networks in Mali and abroad for their own mobility to escape conflicts and cope with violence and uncertainty. While keeping their identity as Dogon guides, they also rely heavily on their livelihood strategy of pluriactivity linked to their former seasonal tourism activity. This paper highlights these types of ‘forced’ mobility often overshadowed by the humanitarian focus on internally displaced population.