Djenné has been a centre of Islamic scholarship since the medieval period and the old town is still scattered with small Quranic schools — madrassas — where boys learn to recite the Quran on wooden tablets called alluha. The tablets are washed and rewritten as students progress. Many master scholars (marabouts) keep their classes in the courtyards of their own houses; you can hear the rhythmic chanting from the street.
A guide can usually arrange a brief and respectful visit. Bring small gifts of sugar, tea, or kola nuts rather than money, and ask before photographing. The scholarly tradition here is intertwined with that of Timbuktu — manuscripts from one library often circulated to the other — and visiting an active madrassa makes the link between contemporary Djenné and the centuries-old learning networks of the Sahel tangible in a way that monuments alone cannot.