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TOGO
The Architecture of Art
By Jheri St. James
“All
architecture is shelter,
All great architecture is the design of space
That contains, cuddles, exalts, or
Stimulates the persons in that space.”
Philip
Johnson
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| Typical
Tamberma Tata |
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“This soil sample came from the ground
surrounding one of the thousands of traditional, fortress-like
houses that dot the Tamberma Valley landscape. According to
Idamou N’Tcha, the soil collector, this sample is of
the variety that would be combined with straw, clay and mud
to build one of these houses.
“Known
as tatas, the houses are still the valley’s
predominant living structure, much as they were in the 17th
century when the Tamberma people arrived to flee enslaving
Abomey kings. In a typical two-story tata, the ground
floor is used to house animals (goat, sheep, guinea fowl)
as well as a small cooking area. The top floor, exposed to
the sky, is used for sleeping and, more commonly in times
of aggression, surveying the surrounding countryside. The
towers of the tata open to provide ample space for
grain storage.
“In
addition to its practical uses, a tata also harbors
the spirits of those living and deceased within the owner’s
family, which in this case would include Idamou, his wife,
his five children, and a collection of closely descended ancestors.
In front of the building lie various sized mounds, each of
which is associated with the spirit of a particular person.
During ceremonies and other key moments in a lifetime, fetishes
will be performed on the mounds, usually in the form of killing
a sacred animal, in order to ensure the spirit’s well-being.”
(Ambassador D.B. Dunn, Togo)
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Monkeys,
Porcupine Skin, Warthog Teeth –
Fetish Market Togo |
Fetishes
in Tamberma Tata Togo |
 “ar-chi-tec-ture.
1: the science, art or profession of designing and
constructing buildings, bridges, etc. . . . 5. any framework,
system, etc….”
(Webster’s New World
College Dictionary)
* * *
Togo is
a small, thin, sub-Saharan nation. Officially the Togolese
Republic, this country in West Africa, borders Ghana in the
west, Benin in the east, and Burkina Faso in the north. In
the south, it has a short Gulf of Guinea coast, on which the
capital Lomé is located. Western history does not record
what happened in Togo before the Portuguese arrived in the
late 15th century. During the period from the 11th-16th centuries,
various tribes entered the region from all directions: the
Ewé from Nigeria and Benin; and the Mina and Guin from
Ghana. When the slave trade began in earnest in the 16th century,
the coastal region was a major raiding center for Europeans
in search of slaves, earning Togo and the surrounding region
the name “The Slave Coast” for the next 200 years.
Subsequently ruled by the Portuguese, the Germans, the French
and the UK, Togo finally became an autonomous, independent
republic in 1960. In 1967 Eyadema Gnassingbe became president
until February 5, 2005, 38 years in power, Africa’s
longest sitting dictator. A majority of the Togolese population
(50%) adhere to indigenous animist beliefs; Christianity is
the second largest religious group (295) and the remaining
21% follow Islam. Togo’s culture reflects the influences
of its now 37 ethnic groups, the largest and most influential
of which are the Ewé, Mina and Kabre. French is the
official language with many indigenous African languages spoken
by Togolese.
 Some
of the artistic expressions in Togo include: Ewé statuary--famous
statuettes illustrating the worship of the twins, the ibéji.
Sculptures and hunting trophies are formed here rather than
the more ubiquitous African masks. The woodcarvers of Kloto
are famous for their “chains of marriage”: two
characters connected by rings drawn from only one piece of
wood. The dyed fabric batiks of the artisanal center of Kloto
represent stylized and colored scenes of ancient everyday
life and ceremonial  loincloths
used in the ceremonies of Assahoun are famous. Works of the
painter Sokey Edorh are inspired by the immense arid lands,
swept by the harmattan winds, and where the laterite topsoil/rock
formations memorialize the prints of the men and the animals.
The plastics technician Paul Ahyi is internationally recognized
today for “zota”, a kind of pyroengraving, and
his monumental achievements decorate Lomé.
"There
are three forms of visual art. Painting is art to look at,
sculpture is art you can walk around, and architecture is
art you can walk through.”
Dan Rice
* *
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“Dear
Jheri, I was the Peace Corps Volunteer in the village who
assisted in the soil collection. I worked extensively with
Idamou (N’Tcha) over the course of two years as an environment
volunteer. He is a local farmer who volunteers part-time at
the village’s only NGO (Association of Young Volunteers
for Community Development). He worked with me on several projects
including starting school gardens and tree nurseries, countless
trainings on the advantages of using organic compost, as well
as a large-scale reforestation project that culminated in
the planting of 3,000 seedlings.
“Idamou’s
last name, N’Tcha, means second-born son in the local
language. He is about 40 and has a wife and five children.
He has the village’s best garden and tree nursery. The
soil sample was taken right outside his “tata”
or house. I do have several excellent pictures of the soil
collection. Unfortunately they are at my home in LA and I
am in DC. I will do my best to get them sent to me, but if
not, I can have them to you at Christmas for certain.
“Also,
FYI, contacting Idamou will be difficult. He has no phone
and there is no email access close by. The email I gave is
the head of the local NGO, so please explain the situation,
in French, so the information can be transferred to Idamou.
“Good
luck with everything and feel free to contact me with further
questions. I could probably help you out with just about anything
concerning Idamou and the area. Best, Charlie” (Gillig).
“Organic
architecture seeks superior sense of use and a
finer sense of comfort, expressed in organic simplicity.”
Frank
Lloyd Wright
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Kara
Togo |
Colonial
House Lome ‘s Beach Togo |
”The
mother art is architecture. Without an architecture of our
own,
we have no soul of our own civilization.”
Frank
Lloyd Wright
Who
is the architect of planet Earth? Who designed the landscapes—mountains,
deserts, windy plains, oceans and sea life, trees, colorful
flowers, birds flying overhead? Where is the blueprint for
the myriad, root systems, insects and underground forms—caves,
channels of oil, shale, water, tectonic plates? Reverently
we speak the names of great men for being architects of our
building structures, our bridges, but perhaps the most important
and greatest architect of all is often ignored, forgotten.
Gaia is a self-perpetuating framework, a system, an armature
that stages our building, our marching . . . and embraces
our deaths. All habitations on our planet are created from
her raw materials—concrete, glass, asbestos, brick,
mud, thatch. All the media that become fetishes, religious
icons and artistic expressions come from the earth—organic
totems, monkey bones, paint, gold leaf, precious metals, and
jewels.
This soil collection comes from the hands
of Idamou N’Tcha, a farmer in Togo, from the earth used
to build his family tata, his country’s homeland. From
Idamou to Charlie Gillig, the Peace Corps volunteer, to C.
B. Dunn, American Ambassador, to Gary Simpson, conceptual
artist, to the final fresco, using soil as the medium. This
chain of hands is the heart of the architecture of art and
the soul of Common Ground 191.
The word
for peace in the Ditammari language of Togo is “kukombuoku.”
“Architecture, of all
the arts, is the one which acts the most slowly,
but the most surely, on the soul.”
Ernest
Dimnet
Rain
forest, Togo
“A
great architect is not made by way of a brain
nearly so much as he is made by way of a
cultivated, enriched heart.”
Frank
Lloyd Wright
Mountain view
through window – Pic D’Agou Highest Mountain -
Togo
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