Dogon Architecture

Dogon architecture is the building tradition of the Dogon people of the Bandiagara region of central Mali, where villages cling to a sandstone escarpment and spread across the plateau above and the plains below. The Cliff of Bandiagara (Land of the Dogons) is a UNESCO World Heritage site covering about 400,000 ha (roughly 990,000 acres) and 289 villages.

Houses

The large family house, the gin'na, is usually two storeys high. Its earth (banco) facade has no windows, only niches and doors, often carved with figures representing successive generations. The earthen walls are made with the same banco technique used across the Sudano-Sahelian belt (see Sahelian earthen roofs).

Granaries

The most recognisable Dogon roofs are on granaries. UNESCO describes them as mostly square in plan, with a thatched roof that tapers upward to a point. The thatch caps protect the stored grain from rain and sun while the earth walls below keep out animals and pests. Rows of these pointed roofs give escarpment villages their distinctive skyline.

The toguna

The toguna (also written togu-na) is a communal shelter for the men of the village. UNESCO describes it as a long structure with a roof of branches carried on roughly shaped wooden posts, shading a raised bench platform. The roof is deliberately very low, so people must sit rather than stand. A common explanation is that this keeps heated discussions calm, since no one can rise up in anger. The toguna is where elders meet to settle community matters and where people gather in the shade during the hottest hours of the day.

Sanctuaries

Totemic sanctuaries (binu) vary widely, from caves in the cliff to earth buildings that resemble houses.

Pressures

UNESCO describes Bandiagara as "a living site, but fragile". Threats include:

• People leaving the steep escarpment villages for the plains, driven by rural exodus, schooling and new infrastructure.
• Drought, desertification and torrential rains linked to climate change.
• Population pressure.
• Logging, which reduces available plant materials.

For roofs, the effect is a slow loss of the maintenance cycle on which thatched granaries and earth roofs depend, and a gradual shift to imported materials in new building.