Granted, no white people allowed inside the mosque...story goes that you (by "you" I mean white people. I take grand leaps here, bi jina) used to be allowed in, but then some Europeans (read: French) shot some ad campaign inside, with a women in a bikini.

Hence the Kibbutz on toubabs.

Yet, the other "major tourist" spot in Mali is Dogon country. Not a Heritage site, BUT does have loads and loads of white peeps going in for a hike, and to buy cultural artifacts, and to pay for ceremonial dances (think of paying for a village to put on a voodoo ceremony in Haiti....its THAT kind of exploitation). And this insane influx of money to an extremely impoverished area...which means people want to support tourism, and so keep selling artifacts, and putting on these dances that are normally secret society things done in the middle of night at specific times of the year.....the banalization of culture.

So the urge that your roomie had to go live in a more African way...on some level I get it, when the culture you get as a tourist isn't the life that is lived in that place....where is the middle ground between Mzungu palace and mud huts? How to walk without patronization, presumption in places of poverty?

Keep fighting the good fight, Bi Jina. That's all there is to do.