Koutamakou, Togo

2019-07-22:  Koutamakou, the cultural landscape of the "Land of the Batammariba". Mud houses in Bassamba.

We left Kara at the end of the morning towards the north.
The landscape changes slowly, the further north we go, the more the savannah character takes over. Palm trees and banana trees, for example, have almost completely disappeared, and it is now rather baobabs that mark the landscape.
Habitat is also changing. Rectangular houses are making more and more room for round huts and we find the particular architecture that had impressed us so much in the north of Ghanaon the way to Tamale: small groups of round huts arranged in a circle and linked together by a wall.

Villages north of Kara

At the entrance of Kandé we take a good laterite track to the right towards the Tamberma country. The welcome center awaits us after 1.5 km on the side of the track. Because access to the area is chargeable (1,500 CFA per person for the Ministry of Culture) and 10,000 CFA for the compulsory guide. Ours is called Abajo and sits on the small bench seat at the back of our motorhome.

The track to Tamberma

The Tamberma country begins after the bridge over the Kéran river about ten kilometers northeast of Kandé and extends over 50,000 ha to the border with Benin and even beyond. Abajo explains that the Tamberma people are originally from Burkina Faso. Convinced animists, they refused Islam from the North in the 11th century to take refuge in this region in the north of Togo and Benin, at the foot of the Atakora cliffs in the caves in which they found their first habitat.
A few more kilometers and we arrive at one of the first villages in Tamberma country: Bassamba, at the end of a small track of 150 m.
We start by going to greet the village chief, Antoine. In fact, this courtesy visit to the village chief is above all an opportunity for the guide to give him his share of the price of the visit. The villages are effectively inhabited and not everyone agrees that tourists enter into their private spheres. The association has therefore concluded agreements with some of the villages which receive part of the earning in exchange for the visit.

Gandalf at Bassamba

The walls are mounted section by section, which their structure reveals.

Abajo explains the technique of earth houses building. They are of course built without any preliminary plan or fixed dimensions, simply by following the spontaneous instructions of the head of the family. The walls are made of earth, mounted on a foundation itself made of earth mixed with large gravel. The house will grow from the base in daily layers of 20 to 25 cm which are left to dry overnight before adding the next layer. This sliced ​​construction technique is clearly visible in the structure of the walls.
Once the house is built, the mason will pass a plaster made of cow dung and fine sand which will then be coated with a mixture of neres powder (african locust beans) and shea butter residues to seal the walls. It is of course vital to ensure that this coating is still intact before the rainy season.

On the right the plaster is laid but the coating remains to be done, on the left the wall is finished, plastered and coated.

Fetishes in front of a Tamberma house.

In front of the entrance to the house we find a whole group of earth cones of various sizes. They are fetishes! The two larger ones, one next to the other, represent the father and mother of the family. The others, in front of them, are the fetishes of the animals killed by the family, built when they claim it. If the family does not meet this demand the spirits of the killed animals will take revenge. Fetishes come in different sizes depending on the size and importance of the killed animal. The largest must be that of a buffalo, according to our guide, while the smallest would rather correspond to monkeys.

In other villages the fetishes are built following another tradition: a large fetish, that of the ancestor, surrounded by innumerable small fetishes, those of his descendants.

We visit one of these houses. They are generally all built according to the same model in five different sections. First the entrance with, on the right, a wheel to grind the grain and a small chicken coop below. Then follows a small room where some utensils are stored and where the chickens and their chicks are kept. The kitchen is installed in a small room a little higher after a series of a few steps.

The kitchen

 From the kitchen we access the roof terrace Here we can find a small outdoor shower as well as two bedrooms: that of the mother and the babies in the center and that of the older children opposite . Children stay there until the age of 16, the age at which they are subjected to the initiation rite before reaching adulthood and leaving the family home.

On the terrace, the mother's bedroom.

The entrance is narrow.

The father generally spends the night at the entrance level to watch the livestock and equipment, but a communication conduit connects him to the terrace and to his wife if necessary (!). This conduit was also used at other more belligerent times to guard the entry of the house and to defend it using bow and arrows from the top when the intruders entered there.

The opening to communicate with the ground floor.

The two attics are also built on the terrace. It is through the top of its conical granaries covered with a straw roof that the different grains are introduced. Access is by a rudimentary wooden ladder. The interior of the attic is compartmentalized so that different kinds of grain can be stored there.

Access to the attic by a rudimentary ladder.

The interior of the granaries is compartmentalized to store different kinds of grain.

I have already mentioned, the first Tamberma who arrived here began by living in the caves of the surrounding cliffs, but some also found refuge inside large baobabs, because indeed some of the most majestic offer enough space in their breast to welcome a small family.
Adajo leads us through cotton fields to one of them. Cotton is also widely grown in this region because it is much more profitable for farmers than the traditional cultivation of corn or yam. The national cotton company provides free fertilizer and seeds to farmers who will reimburse them with the result of their cultivation at harvest. The surplus is bought at a price well defined by the national company.

Cotton plantation.

Rice plantation

another village on the way to the baobab

As we approach the famous baobab, children and women from the surrounding dwellings join us and it is with a small escort of ten people that we arrive at the baobab. Unlike earlier, when visiting the house, women and children have fairly penetrating attitudes, either to sell their crafts or to beg. It spoils the pleasure of the visit a little.

Thierry at the entrance of the baobab house

Inside the baobab

After the visit of the baobab we join the motorhome by the track always accompanied by the small group of women and children who keep asking us for small gifts. We still manage to chat with one of them, she is just 18 years old and already has three children, which is to say that she has not been long in school.
We finish the visit with the Unesco takienta (this is how the typical houses of the region are called). It is built following the same architecture as traditional takientas but partially using more modern materials such as cement. We don't dwell on it too much because the original is more interesting.

From the takienta terrace.

On the way back to the reception center I explain to our guide that they should still make awareness efforts with the villagers because the harassment risks frightening tourists and it would be fatal for the villages to kill the goose that lays golden eggs. This is what prompts us to take the road back although we had planned to spend the night in the village. The behavior of the villagers took away all our desire!
We drop Adajo at the reception center. It is already 5:25 p.m. when we hit the road.