have fastened two walls to each other, each one forming a semi-
cylinder, and have covered the whole with a roof that assumes the
aspect of an egg divided in the direction of its length; certain
Kulango have arranged a basement of stones below the clay of the
walls; the Baoulé have applied the clay on a wooden wattle which
constitutes the framework of the wall and have replaced the circu-
lar form by an ellipse that they have divided into several compart-
ments; the Agni have deliberately adopted the rectangular form
with a two-sided roof and ridge tiles; some of the coast populations
have given four sides to their roofs and constructed their walls with
the ribs of the palm leaf, without having any recourse to clay.
Besides these, innumerable intermediate types could be mentioned.
The other model of habitation which is dominant, especially
among certain Sudanese populations (Sarakolle, Bambara, Bobo,
Gurunsi, Dagari, Hausa, etc.), is composed of a quadrangular
clay wall with a flat roof constituting a terrace, made of round logs
resting on the extremities of the walls and covered with mud.
Sometimes, as in Djenné, these houses have a second story and
windows; elsewhere, as among the Degha of Assafoumo, on the
Ivory Coast, and among the Palaka of the same colony, they are
extraordinarily low, but are so elongated that each one occupies
the entire side of a street; elsewhere again, as in the vicinity of the
Black Volta, they have that sort of fortress-like aspect of which I
have already spoken, being divided into numerous rooms each
Vhothi/ngwena door (Venda), 19thcentury.
Northern Province, South Africa.
Wood, 154 x 50 x 5 cm.
The National Cultural History Museum, Pretoria.
Elaborately carved relief designs on doors were initially reserved for only the most
important chiefs of the political and religious hierarchy, though all high-ranking
nobles and chiefs of the Venda had solid, carved wooden doors. Placed at the
highest point of the capital of a cheif’s dwelling, built on stone terraces against
the southern side of a mountain, they remained unseen by most throughout the
chief’s lifetime. The same professional carvers who created them were
responsible for the production of sacred drums, xylophones, and divining bowls.
The most elaborately decorated doors are called ngwena(crocodile). The teeth,
called harre, allow a leather strap to open and close the door, and up the nostrils,
interlaced patterns on the surface of the skin mark the animal and the concentric
circles of his eyes. Because of this, all doors of this type are generic images of
crocodiles. It is said when the door is closed, the crocodile bites, and unbites when
it is open. All of these doors share the same decorative motifs and iconography.