The main market is the heart of Mubi and a defining experience of the town. It runs every day but expands enormously on market days, when traders flood in from villages across both Adamawa State and the Cameroonian border zone. Livestock, grain, cloth, dried fish from Lake Chad, salt, leatherwork, and an extraordinary range of household goods change hands.
Wander the alleys early in the morning when the heat is still bearable and the colours are at their best — heaps of tomatoes, dried chillies in red mountains, sacks of millet and sorghum, women in indigo wrappers haggling over goats. As with any large market, keep your camera discreet and ask before photographing people; this is a working trading floor, not a tourist attraction.