Decorated Mud Houses of Tiebele, Burkina Faso
	
	
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In the south of Burkina Faso, a landlocked country in west Africa,  near the border with Ghana lies a small, circular village of about 1.2  hectares, called Tiébélé. This is home of the Kassena people, one of the  oldest ethnic groups that had settled in the territory of Burkina Faso  in the 15th century. Tiébélé is known for their amazing traditional  Gourounsi architecture and elaborately decorated walls of their homes. 
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  Burkina  Faso is a poor country, even by West African standards, and possibly  the poorest in the world. But they are culturally rich, and decorating  the walls of their buildings is an important part of their cultural  legacy in this area of the country. Wall decorating is always a  community project done by the women and it’s a very ancient practice  that dates from the sixteenth century AD.
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The Kassena people build their houses entirely of local materials:  earth, wood and straw. Soil mixed with straw and cow dung is moistened  to a state of perfect plasticity, to shape almost vertical surfaces.  Today this technique is replaced by the use of mud brick molding walls  with foundations resting on large stone. Tiébélé’s houses are built with  defense in mind, whether that be against the climate or potential  enemies. Walls are over a foot thick and the homes are designed without  windows except for a small opening or two to let just enough light in to  see. Front doors are only about two feet tall, which keeps the sun out  and makes enemies difficult to strike. Roofs are protected with wood  ladders that are easily retracted and the local beer (dolo) is brewed at  home.
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  After construction, the woman makes murals on the walls  using colored mud and white chalk. The motifs and symbols are either  taken from everyday life, or from religion and belief. The finished wall  is then carefully burnished with stones, each color burnished  separately so that the colors don’t blur together. Finally, the entire  surface is coated with a natural varnish made by boiling pods of néré,  the African locust bean tree. 
  The designs also serves to  protect the walls themselves. The decorating is usually done just before  the rainy season and protects the outside walls from the rain. Adding  cow dung, compacting layers of mud, burnishing the final layer, and  varnishing with néré all make the designs withstand wet weather,  enabling the structures to last longer.
Tourism
Keywords: tourist places,  Tiebele, Burkina Faso, attractive places africa, africa tourism