Camel caravans fading from salt trade as Timbuktu slowly modernizes

Camel caravans have for centuries ferried salt to remote Timbuktu. But they are now gradually being replaced by a more modern beast. (Karin Brulliard/the Washington Post)
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Youba, 35, had bought the salt three weeks before for less than $5 a slab and sold it here for three times as much. His sun-weathered face, the texture of a worn baseball mitt, betrayed exhaustion.

Camels are good for caravans only until they are about 6 years old, Youba said. Their teeth weaken after that, making it difficult for them to eat desert foliage and increasing their risk of starvation.

Still, he said, they are better than trucks, which require expensive fuel. Camels require leaves and water, which are free. That means that when traders return north -- their camels now carrying staples such as millet, rice and sugar -- they can afford to give some to the miners, who have the backbreaking job of hacking out salt under the blazing sun.

"It's better with a camel," he said. "I do not want to lose the tradition of my father and my grandfathers."

A few blocks away, Boubakar, 56, watched as his customer finished loading 10 slabs into a Toyota pickup and sped off to sell the salt in Mopti, a city even farther from the desert.

The "bad memory" of a 1973 drought was seared in his mind, Boubakar said, making him fearful of relying on camels that needed water and plants. With the truck, he said, he can make two trips a month, while camel caravans make two a year.

But he acknowledged that the costs meant his donations to the miners had ended.

"It is possible to do that with camels. With the truck, it is another way," he said, waving his hand dismissively as he watched his patrons unload salt from the truck bed. "There is nothing for the miners."

There were also other adjustments, Boubakar said. From the cab of a truck, the stars are obscured, and navigating is not the same. And so he had a request for a visitor.

"When you come back, whether in one month or five years," he said, "please bring me a GPS."