Market sights in Africa
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Darajani Market
The dark, narrow passageways of the chaotic Darajani market assault the senses, with occasional whiffs of spices mixing with the stench of fish, the clamour of vendors hawking their wares, neat, brightly coloured piles of fruits and vegetables, and dozens of small shops selling everything from plastic tubs to auto spares. It's just off Creek Rd, and at its best in the morning before the heat and the crowds, when everything is still fresh.
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Katutura
Unlike its South African counterparts, the township of Katutura is relatively safe by day if you stick to the northern areas and/or find a local who can act as a guide. An especially interesting spot is the informal Soweto Market, where traders sell just about anything imaginable. A shared taxi from the Wernhill Park Centre to Katutura costs around US$1 per person.
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Timber Market
If you're walking back to the centre along Cleland Rd, which becomes High St, you could take a detour along Hansen Rd to see the Timber Market. The fetish section is fascinating, with its animal skulls, live and dead reptiles, strange powders, and juju figurines.
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Sunday Market
The Sunday market at the Arcades Shopping Centre features artisanal goodies that are a step up in quality from markets elsewhere.
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Marché Plateau
Marché Plateau has been razed, but will be rebuilt.
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Attarine Souks
There's a cluster of souks just off the Talaa that are worth exploring. Coming from Bab Bou Jeloud, the first is Souk Triba, meaning 'square in shape', with a small orange tree and some cosmetic and electronic shops. Walk through to Souk Tallis where sacks for wool and wheat were sold. Now there's a carpet stall and several shops selling cloth for jellabas (cloak with a hood) - though many of the shops are now closed.
Continue through to the next souk, L'Hayek (;09:00-12:30 & 15:00-17:00 Sat-Thu), which refers to the white cloth used for women's clothes. These days there are jellabas, gandoras (men's embroidered jacket and pants) and jabadors (garment worn under a…
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Sharia as-Souq
Starting from the southern end, Sharia as-Souq appears very much like the tourist bazaars all over Egypt, with persistent traders trying to lure passers-by into their shops to buy T-shirts, perfume, spices, beaded galabiyyas (robes) and roughly carved copies of Pharaonic statues. But a closer look down side alleys and walking further north reveals more exotic elements, hinting at the markets south in Sudan and Africa.
Here traders sell Nubian talisman for good luck, colourful Nubian baskets and scull caps, Sudanese swords, African masques, and enormous stuffed crocodiles and desert creatures. This is also very much a living market, where Nubians from Elephantine Island…
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Grand Marché
Every Monday, the wide open area in front of the mosque is transformed into the clamorous Monday Market, which has barely changed since the days when Saharan camel caravans brought salt across the sands to the gates of Djenné. Thousands of traders and customers come from miles around, and many of these itinerant traders follow the calendar of local market days in the region's villages, their week culminating in Djenné.
Most arrive the night before, and by 06:00 on market day traders are already staking out the best sites (ie those with shade). By mid- to late-morning (the best time to visit the market), the open square in front of the mosque is filled with traders…
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Markets
No visit to Harar would be complete without wading through the shambolic markets that sprawl outside Harar Gate and Shoa Gate. At first sight this minicity appears to be an impenetrable latticework of tiny streets and alleys; on closer inspection it reveals a careful organisation with different sections. It's a great place to ramble.
You could start with the Smugglers' Market, southeast of Canal Cafe; it's chock-full with goods from Asia. The adjoining Recycling Market is a stunner: witness the workmanship and watch men beating metal into every single useful utensil or spare part. Then elbow your way through the Asma'addin Bari Market (New Market; also known as the…
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Grand Marché
Bobo-Dioulasso's centrepiece, the expansive Grand Marché, is hugely enjoyable and atmospheric, and a wonderful (and largely hassle-free) place to experience a typical African city market.
Occupying the inner circle are the fruit and vegetable stalls, watched over by colourfully clad women and surrounded by the overwhelming odours of the fish and meat sections. From here to the market's outer rim, impossibly narrow and labyrinthine lanes and makeshift stalls stock household wares and an excellent selection of African cotton prints - as well as reasonably priced tailors who can make clothing from them in a flash. There's a small choice of masks, drums and objects in bronze…
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Birqash Camel Market (Souq al-Gamaal)
A visit to Egypt's largest camel market, on the edge of the Western Desert, makes for a wild contrast to Cairo city life. The market is an easy half-day trip from Cairo but, like all of Egypt's animal markets, it's not for the faint-hearted. Hundreds of camels are swapped here daily, most having made the long haul up the 40 Days Road from Sudan.
When here, watch out for pickpockets. Women should dress conservatively - the market is very much a man's scene, with the only female presence other than the occasional traveller being the local tea lady. When you arrive, pick a strategic spot and settle in to watch the negotiations. The best area is around the middle of the lot;…
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Kejetia Market
From afar, the Kejetia Market looks like an alien mothership landed in the centre of Kumasi. Closer up, the rusting tin roofs of this huge market, often cited as the largest in West Africa, look like a circular shantytown. But once you take a breath and step down into its interior, it's infinitely disorienting but also throbbing with life and commerce.
Watch your step, often over unused railroad tracks, in the narrow alleyways selling everything from foodstuffs, second-hand shoes, clothes and plastic knick-knacks to kente cloth, glass beads, Ashanti sandals, batik and bracelets. You may also see fetish items, such as vulture heads, parrot wings and dried chameleons.
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Marché des Féticheurs
The Marché des Féticheurs, 4km northeast of the centre, stocks all the ingredients for traditional tonics and fetishes - porcupine skin, warthog teeth, donkey skull, serpent head, horse hair, parakeet tail, thunderstones and chameleons. You can also buy ready-made grigri charms, such as the lovers' fetish and the 'telephone' fetish for travellers. Stock is sourced all over Africa and some visitors may feel uncomfortable buying the parts of lions, panthers, antelopes and buffalo, or rare species.
The market is an overpriced tourist trap, but is still worth a visit. To get there charter a taxi or a taxi-moto.
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Grand Marché du Dantokpa
The seemingly endless Grand Marché du Dantokpa is Cotonou's exhilarating, exhausting heart, bordered by the lagoon and Blvd St Michel. Everything under the sun can be purchased in its labyrinthine lanes, particularly if 'everything' happens to be a dodgy Lucky Dube CD or a pair of plastic sandals. More traditional fare, such as batiks and Fon jewellery, can be found in the market building. There is also a fetish market, located near the pirogues arriving from the lagoon.
Look out for the so-called 'Mama Benz', the haughty matriarchs of the market who are named after their favourite make of car.
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Port de Pêche
The Port de Pêche is an absolute must-see, and is by far Nouakchott's star attraction. It's incredibly lively and extremely colourful. You'll see hundreds of teams of men, mostly Wolof and Fula, dragging in heavy hand-knotted fishing nets. Small boys hurry back and forth with trays of fish, which they sort, gut, fillet and lay out on large trestles to dry. The best time is in the late afternoon, when the fishing boats return. It's a fantastic experience and not to be missed.
It's pretty safe as long as you're vigilant and sensible (wear a money belt). Take a taxi to get there from the centre.
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Souq el-Attarine
The medina markets (souqs) were organised into different commercial areas. Refined trades surrounded the Zaytouna Mosque, while dirtier businesses such as tanners or blacksmiths stayed on the outskirts. The markets are either named after their traditional trade or their founding community, such as Souq el-Grana - the Livornese Jews' Souq. The main markets include the Souq el-Attarine - the Perfume Makers' Souq, dating from the 13th century, near the Zaytouna Mosque.
Today it's largely souvenirs, but there are plenty of essential oils too. The quilted satin baskets on sale are for wedding gifts.
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Flea Market
This is an interesting place to wander, it descends towards the river. If you want to keep exploring, turning north along Rue des Consuls, you'll be surrounded by colourful carpets, leatherworks, babouches (leather slippers) and copper crafts. It's one of the more interesting areas of the medina for travellers with many original diplomatic residencies still intact.
After the carpet souq, the street ends in an open area lined with craft shops which was the setting for the slave auctions in the days of the Sallee Rovers. From here you can make your way up the hill to the kasbah.
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Birqash Camel Market
Egypt’s largest camel market is held at Birqash, a small village 35km northwest of Cairo. Until 1995 the market was held in Cairo’s western suburb of Imbaba, but when land became too precious for camels, one of Cairo’s age-old institutions was relocated to the edge of the Western Desert. Like all Egypt’s animal markets, the Birqash camel market is not for animal lovers, nor for the faint of heart. But if you’ve got a strong stomach (and better yet a weak sense of smell), a visit to Birqash can make an unforgettable day trip.
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Marketplace
Your guide will probably leave you at the Marketplace, which has a few shops nearby selling the colourful local rugs. The best time for a visit is in the late afternoon, when the market square comes alive with the daily auction - the Marché à la Criée. The square is lined with stone benches where tourists and locals alike can sit to observe the action. Those taking part yell out the price of their item until someone buys it, or the price is bought down. It is interesting to watch: as there are no cafés in the town, it becomes the social event of the day.
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Grand Marché
Lomé's Grand Marché is a great place to get a sense of what Togo is all about. It is colourful, noisy, crowded and buzzing, not the place for genteel browsing but rather for intense haggling with the often formidable female marketeers, named Mama Benz, after their favourite motors.
This is the place to pick up everything from Togolese football tops to something exotic for a picnic. One of the most sought after items on offer is wax cloth, sold by the 2m pagne - the amount needed for a complete outfit - and available in a variety of bright colours.
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Henna Souk
One of the oldest market places this souk, off Talaa Kebira, has graceful plane trees shading the stalls selling ceramics and traditional cosmetics, including henna. The mohtassib (price-controller), now defunct, had his office here and you can still see his large scales. On one side is the restored Maristane Sidi Frej, a former psychiatric hospital built by the Merinids in the 13th century. Leo Africanus worked here as a young man. It's now a small kissaria (covered market).
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Souq er-Ribba
This souq (market) is the closest Sousse comes to a medieval bazaar. The roof is unmistakably modern, yet the sales-pitch beneath it is age-old. Far from the tranquillity of the southern medina, Souq er-Ribba forms the commercial heart of the medina. The place is a riot of colour, packed with haggling merchants, browsing tourists and barrow boys trying to squeeze through with their improbably overloaded carts. This is not the world's most evocative bazaar but worth exploring nonetheless.
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Central Market
Central Mwanza has an Oriental feel due to its many mosques and Hindu temples, and is well worth a stroll, particularly the area around Temple St. In the area between Temple St west towards Post St, Mwanza's strong Indian influence is particularly evident, with Indian trading houses and pan shops lining the streets. To the southeast is the bustling and chaotic Central Market , where you can find almost anything you could want.
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Camel Market
Most of the camels are brought up in caravans from Sudan to just north of Abu Simbel, from where they're trucked to Daraw. The rest walk to the market in smaller groups, entering Egypt at Wadi al-Alagi and making their way through the Eastern Desert. Camels are sold here each day of the week, but the main caravan of camels from Abu Simbel, sometimes as many as 2000 of them, is brought to market on Sunday.
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Souq el-Berka
North of the narrow Souq de la Laine, the Wool Souq, barrel-vaulted Souq el-Berka dates from Ottoman times: this was the slave souq where prisoners of Muslim corsairs (pirates) were brought, sometimes from the prison at La Goulette, to be sold from a wooden block. When piracy dwindled, the human market was supplied by sub-Saharan Africa. The trade was abolished in 1846 and it's now a goldsmith's market.
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