West Africa is one corner of the world where traditional cultures continue to thrive despite globalization and Western influences. One such culture is that of the Batammariba tribe living in the Koutammakou cultural landscape of northeastern Togo and northwestern Benin. The Batammariba – also known as Tammari or Somba – are an agricultural society who believe in being caretakers of land rather than its owners, and religious beliefs and rituals play a key role in everyday life and connecting the people to the land.
Another central role in the everyday life and culture of the Batammariba is given to their traditional two-story tower houses, known as tata sombas or takientas. Indeed, the word Batammariba means “the people who are the real builders of the earth”. In tata sombas technical features of earth building and defensive design meet with social structures and religious symbolism.
Defensive design of tata sombas
Batammariba families typically live in compounds with a set of interconnected tata sombas surrounded by farmland. Compounds are located far from each other which means that villages are spread out over large areas. In the past, this distance between compounds would frustrate slave traders who preferred to turn their efforts elsewhere. The design of tata sombas – resembling small fortresses with only one entrance – provided further protection from attacks by slave traders and neighbouring tribes.
As with most traditional houses in the region, the walls of tata sombas are built out of earth mixed with straw and cow dung. Thick walls insulate against the hot climate while small openings provide protection against the dusty seasonal harmattan wind. A special varnish made from the néré fruit is applied on the walls in order to make them waterproof, as is also done by the Kassena people of neighbouring Burkina Faso. Some roofs are conical thatched roofs while others are flat earth roofs resting on wooden beams.
Typical tata sombas are two stories high. A single small entrance on the ground floor makes it difficult for enemies to invade. The ground floor is primarily used as a stable to shelter animals at night and during the rainy season, while an intermediary floor contains the kitchen and access to the roof.
The roof is where one finds the bedrooms, with doors so small that you have to crawl through them. The roof is also used to dry grains and to store them in specially built granaries. Storing the grains on the roof meant that the family could stay in their homes for weeks when slave traders tried to attack them. The houses were also defended from attackers with poisoned arrows and hatches for arrows can still be found on the roofs. Today they are used for a different purpose: an arrow fired during a special ceremony will determine the site where the young men build their tata somba.
Cultural and religious significance of tata sombas
Tata sombas also play a key role in the religious life of the Batammariba. The house of a family symbolizes the unity of gods, humans, and ancestors, with the roof representing the sky, the middle floor the earth, and the bottom the underworld. Even if some Batammariba prefer to live in modern houses today, a small tata somba is built next to the modern house with all the traditional characteristics.
The Batammariba follow an animist religion, and animal sacrifices are performed for a variety of purposes, including warding off evil spirits, making it rain, healing the sick or facilitating birth. Outside the houses there are conical altars with remains from sacrificing animals, mostly chickens. By the entrance and inside the house you also find multiple fetishes, such as animal skulls, meant for protection.
Tata sombas are treated almost like humans, and sometimes their facades have patterns resembling facial scars born by the Batammariba people themselves. The Batammariba recognize that houses are not meant to last for ever; much like people, houses also have their life cycle from construction and use to abandonment, demolition and finally reconstruction. Tata sombas die with their owner, but as their locations are considered sacred, new houses are built on the old foundations by the next generation. Thanks to the spiritual role these houses play in the life of the Batammariba, the tata somba, and all the knowledge behind building and maintaining it, will hopefully continue this life cycle for a long time to come.