CULTURE Earth Castles in 🇹🇬 Togo

[backgroundISneeded]

The Batammariba people, also known as "those who model the earth", reside in the northeastern region of Togo and are renowned for constructing extraordinary mud tower-houses, known as Takienta. These unique structures have become an iconic representation of Togo.

The buildings, which are typically two stories tall, feature a cylindrical base with an almost spherical shape above it, specifically in the granaries. The roofs vary between flat and conical thatched designs. They are clustered in villages, which also comprise ceremonial spaces, springs, rocks, and designated areas for initiation ceremonies.

The society's rituals and beliefs are closely linked with nature, and the tower-houses' architectural design reflects the community's social structure, farmland, forest, and the relationship between the people and their surroundings.

Source
image: https://fordgraphics.weebly.com/home/houses-around-the-world

https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1140/

 

[Internet Nomad]

This mogs the somali Aqal

 

[hinters]

This mogs the somali Aqal

We got castles too tho

 

[Internet Nomad]

We got castles too tho

im talking about the miyi houses

 

[Shimbiris]

im talking about the miyi houses

An aqal is not a miyi house. It's a tent. You put up a frame and cover it with mats and can easily disassemble it, pack it onto the back of camels or cattle and get going. It's our equivalent of Arabians' poled goat hair tents. Not a house and for what it is it's actually very intricate and clever:

It's also a very ancient design that was spread even to the Khoikhoi of Southern Africa by South Cushites. Even Fulanis use a variation of it as do some nomadic Chadics, Sahelian NS speakers and Saharan "Arabs" like the Baggara:

Somalis, Sahos, Bejas, Afars, Tigre (Ethiosemitized Beja), Rendille and even the South Cushitic pastoralists all used it. The latter even spread it to KhoiKhoi people in South Africa:

KhoiKhoi tent - Google Search

It is also used by various Sudani and Chadian Arab groups like the Baggara Arabs:

Baggara Arab tent - Google Search

There is reason to believe, both genetics and linguistics wise, that these Sudani/Chadian groups have notable ancient Cushitic roots which probably explains the tents but these types of domed mat-tents are found all across the Sahel as well. Even in different designs among groups like Fulanis:

Fulani tent - Google Search

This type of domed mat-tent was most likely used by some of the earliest nomads of the Sahel region and Cushites have especially preserved it. But yes, semi-nomadic/more settled Cushites like the Borana and Sidamics don't use domed mat-tents anymore.

This is more what Somalis tended to make in terms of rural and simpler magaalo dwellings when they were settled:

 

[Internet Nomad]

An aqal is not a miyi house. It's a tent. You put up a frame and cover it with mats and can easily disassemble it, pack it onto the back of camels or cattle and get going. It's our equivalent of Arabians' poled goat hair tents. Not a house and for what it is it's actually very intricate and clever:

It's also a very ancient design that was spread even to the Khoikhoi of Southern Africa by South Cushites. Even Fulanis use a variation of it as do some nomadic Chadics, Sahelian NS speakers and Saharan "Arabs" like the Baggara:



This is more what Somalis tended to make in terms of rural and simpler magaalo dwellings when they were settled:

How would large cities home look like

 

[Shimbiris]

How would large cities home look like

Most of the dwellings in a magalaad would be huts like the ones I shared. That was the case in Arabia as well. They even used the same word for the dwellings as us (Cariish). You needed to be someone pretty well-off financially with a lot of political clout to convince people to construct something out of stone for you in such blistering heat and unforgiving aridity, and sometimes also commission a designer. So, such buildings were mostly the dwellings of well-off merchants, Suldaano OR mosques, storehouses and tribal forts like some of the following:

In the north it seems like the builders/masons were mostly the Gabooye as they are often recounted as such though there are cases like with the Darawiish where they employed Yemenis who would also have pretty much been the Gabooye equivalent of Yemen since Arabs have a similar artisanal taboo. In Koonfur it was often the Tunni, apparently:

This is untrue. It is true in certain small cases like when the Omani Sultan had to ask for permission from the Geledi to build a fort in Xamar or when the Sayyid and his men used some ajanabi builders from places like Yemen for some of their forts but, overall, the masons of the Somali coast were the Gabooye:

As far as i know some of the artisan groups did masonry. For example Yibir are not only magician peddlers, but they are also tanners and masons according to Sade Mire and Kirk.

Even though the bigger Somali clans acknowledge that the Yibir are good tanners and skilled in masonry, they are generally looked down upon in Somali society.

These seems to hold through when you read the biography of The Yibir of Las Burgabo


He settled in a town very far away , where nobody knew him ... , “ He was a skilled mason . But now he was ready to start at the bottom as a handyman for masons ... People soon found out he was good at his work.

When it comes to Benadiry coast like Barawa , it was Tunnis who were builders and they were using indigenous techniques to do it.

The coastal Tunni, the artisans of the Banadir region, are famous for their crafts: weaving the ulindi (plain and colored textile for clothing) and making jewelry and shoes. They are also builders and manufacturers of traditional arms (daggers, spears and shields)


Barawa has many two-story houses with bridges constructed over the streets, built so that women or the elderly could visit other houses without going down into the street....Coral was transported by camel cartts and burned to make lime for buildings, a wise use of skills that was more economical than using imported cement

Historical Dictionary of Somalia​

Despite advances in modern communication and the proliferation of information, there remain areas of the world about which little is known. One such place is Somalia. The informed public is aware of a political meltdown and consequent chaos there, but few comprehend the causes of this tragic...
books.google.ca

https://books.google.ca/books?id=J6nODwAAQBAJ&pg=PP49&dq=Yibir+Masonry&hl=no&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi7yrml-8X4AhUB2KQKHcnnA3QQ6AF6BAgFEAI#v=onepage&q=Yibir Masonry&f=false


In Koonfur it was largely the Tunni, as you can see above, who went around being masons and, from what I grasp, they were not shunned or treated as "out-caste" for it unlike the Madhiban. This is why all the coastal towns along the Somali coast from Saylac down to Barawe have an absurdly similar look that is ridiculously uncanny yet different from the coastal towns in Yemen and Oman where, in the former case, the builders were largely very skilled Jews and Indians.

Arabs "don't build" either, for the record. A normal Arab tribsemen would see such work as beneath him the same way a "noble" Somali tribesman would. They largely left masonry, glasswork, blacksmithing and the like to Madhiban type tribes among them they did not intermarry with and looked down on or Jews or straight up ajanabis from the fertile crescent. I had a whole thread on this:

Arabs also practiced Artisanal Taboo​

This was the case even during the nabi's (SAW) day when all of the crafts people of Madinah were ajanabis:

 

[Internet Nomad]

Most of the dwellings in a magalaad would be huts like the ones I shared. That was the case in Arabia as well. They even used the same word for the dwellings as us (Cariish). You needed to be someone pretty well-off financially with a lot of political clout to convince people to construct something out of stone for you in such blistering heat and unforgiving aridity, and sometimes also commission a designer. So, such buildings were mostly the dwellings of well-off merchants, Suldaano OR mosques, storehouses and tribal forts like some of the following:

In the north it seems like the builders/masons were mostly the Gabooye as they are often recounted as such though there are cases like with the Darawiish where they employed Yemenis who would also have pretty much been the Gabooye equivalent of Yemen since Arabs have a similar artisanal taboo. In Koonfur it was often the Tunni, apparently:

Your like a walking wikipedia

 

[Shangani]

Most of the dwellings in a magalaad would be huts like the ones I shared. That was the case in Arabia as well. They even used the same word for the dwellings as us (Cariish). You needed to be someone pretty well-off financially with a lot of political clout to convince people to construct something out of stone for you in such blistering heat and unforgiving aridity, and sometimes also commission a designer. So, such buildings were mostly the dwellings of well-off merchants, Suldaano OR mosques, storehouses and tribal forts like some of the following:

In the north it seems like the builders/masons were mostly the Gabooye as they are often recounted as such though there are cases like with the Darawiish where they employed Yemenis who would also have pretty much been the Gabooye equivalent of Yemen since Arabs have a similar artisanal taboo. In Koonfur it was often the Tunni, apparently:

I knew Merka, Barawa, and Xamar were walled cities but didn't know Bardheera was also walled.

 

[Johnathan Smith]

The Batammariba people, also known as "those who model the earth", reside in the northeastern region of Togo and are renowned for constructing extraordinary mud tower-houses, known as Takienta. These unique structures have become an iconic representation of Togo.

The buildings, which are typically two stories tall, feature a cylindrical base with an almost spherical shape above it, specifically in the granaries. The roofs vary between flat and conical thatched designs. They are clustered in villages, which also comprise ceremonial spaces, springs, rocks, and designated areas for initiation ceremonies.

The society's rituals and beliefs are closely linked with nature, and the tower-houses' architectural design reflects the community's social structure, farmland, forest, and the relationship between the people and their surroundings.

Source
image: https://fordgraphics.weebly.com/home/houses-around-the-world

https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1140/

View attachment 260162View attachment 260163View attachment 260165View attachment 260166View attachment 260167

If that’s the castle I don’t want to know what the average house looks like.

 

[Johnathan Smith]

Most of the dwellings in a magalaad would be huts like the ones I shared. That was the case in Arabia as well. They even used the same word for the dwellings as us (Cariish). You needed to be someone pretty well-off financially with a lot of political clout to convince people to construct something out of stone for you in such blistering heat and unforgiving aridity, and sometimes also commission a designer. So, such buildings were mostly the dwellings of well-off merchants, Suldaano OR mosques, storehouses and tribal forts like some of the following:

In the north it seems like the builders/masons were mostly the Gabooye as they are often recounted as such though there are cases like with the Darawiish where they employed Yemenis who would also have pretty much been the Gabooye equivalent of Yemen since Arabs have a similar artisanal taboo. In Koonfur it was often the Tunni, apparently:

The masons should be more respected. They’re the backbone of society.

 

[Based]

I don’t mean to be disrespectful but how is a mud castle anywhere near impressive.

 

[Internet Nomad]

I don’t mean to be disrespectful but how is a mud castle anywhere near impressive.

You're being culturally insensitive.