Roofing in Senegal

Senegal, at the western tip of Africa, has one of the most varied roofing patterns in West Africa. Concrete slab roofs dominate Dakar and other cities, metal and asbestos-cement sheet are common in towns, and thatch is still widespread in rural areas. In the humid south, the Diola of Casamance built some of the region's most distinctive thatched houses.

Climate and hazards

Most of Senegal is Sahelian, with a single short rainy season and a long dry season with harmattan winds. The south, especially Casamance, is much wetter and more forested. The Atlantic coast brings salt air, and low-lying Saint-Louis has suffered from flooding. Heat gain through metal roofs is a widespread comfort issue.

Roofing history

Saint-Louis, founded as a French trading settlement in the 17th century, became the capital of Senegal from 1872 to 1957 and of French West Africa until 1902. Its colonial architecture is known for balconied houses, gallery houses and rare Portuguese-style low houses (maisons basses).

Traditional and vernacular roofs

• Diola impluvium house (case à impluvium), Casamance: a round earth house whose thatched roof slopes both outward and inward, draining rain through a central opening into a basin. Only a handful survive (see Diola impluvium house).
• Multi-storey earth houses (cases à étages) at Mlomp, Casamance: clay walls with palm-wood floors under straw roofs.
• Thatch: grass or straw thatch was still recorded on about one home in six in national surveys of 2013-2018.
• Nubian vaults: since 2000 the association La Voûte Nubienne has trained masons in Senegal, among other Sahel countries, to build timber-free earth-brick vaults.

Roofing today

The 2018 Afrobarometer survey recorded the following roof materials among its Senegalese respondents:

Main roof material	Share of respondents (2018)
Metal, aluminium, tin or zinc	32.2%
Concrete	28.7%
Thatch or grass	17.3%
Asbestos	12.1%
Tiles	5.3%
Multiple materials	1.3%

Afrobarometer surveys interview about 1,200 adults per country; these figures are unweighted counts in the survey sample. Earlier rounds in 2013 and 2014 gave similar shares for metal (39% and 37%) and thatch (17% in both).

Dakar is dominated by concrete. In the unweighted 2015-16 urban Dakar Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey sample (about 4,900 households), 69.7% of roofs were cement, 20.2% tiles or slate and 8.3% zinc or fibre cement; thatch was almost absent.

Codes, standards and regulation

Saint-Louis is managed under a Safeguarding and Valorisation Plan created in 2006, with an implementing decree of 2008.

Notable roofs

• Island of Saint-Louis: colonial balconied and gallery houses, a World Heritage site.
• Impluvium houses of Casamance, including examples at Enampore, Mlomp and Oussouye.

Local roofing terms

• case à impluvium (French): impluvium house.
• case à étages (French): multi-storey earth house.
• dalle (French): concrete roof slab.
• tôle (French): metal roof sheet.

Sources and gaps

Survey shares are unweighted; ANSD census tables on roof material (2013 census) are not well documented in published sources. Sahelian vernacular house types in northern Senegal, codes and industry: published information is limited.