The Hamatan is a northern wind which blows dust down from the Sahara marking the beginning of the dry aka “hot” season. We have been very fortunate actually in that this has been the first Hamatan. Normally, in Bamako we would have already have had several between January and now. Regardless, it is quite a spectacal and the pictures really don’t capture how thick the dust is. It is hard to breathe, you feel congested, everything you touch is caked with microfine dust. It’s a reminder that even though we live in a city like Bamako we are not far from the fringe of an ever advancing desert.

Biz 2.0 Article Update
I managed to get an actual scan of the article.