Tengréla, Kouto, Sorobango, Samatiguila, M’Bengué, Kaouara and Kong are seven towns and cities in the north of Ivory Coast that at the end of last July saw that their eight Sudanese-style mosques were recognized as world heritage by the UNESCO. These are small earthen constructions with protruding wooden beams and vertical buttresses crowned by ceramics or ostrich eggs and slender minarets. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, “they represent an interpretation of an architectural style whose origin dates back to around the 14th century in the city of Djenné.”
This city is located in Mali and was part of his empire, which spread throughout the Sahel, from Nigeria to the Senegalese coast. Djenné was a very prosperous city due to the gold and salt trade through the Sahara to North Africa. Thanks to this, he built great architectural works, among which the Great Mosque stands out, which is still today the largest building made of clay in the world (5,562m²). That construction must have impressed so much that it soon began to be replicated in different parts of the Sahel. Especially from the 16th century on, this style spread to the south, towards the savannas.
There, the new buildings adapt and present lower forms and more solid buttresses to respond to the higher humidity of the climate. The new mosques gain strength while leaving behind the lean and agile forms of their predecessors. Those found in northern Ivory Coast were built between the 17th and 19th centuries.
All of them present the adaptations that had to be made to the original plans in the West African savanna and in all of them Muslim forms are mixed with local architectural elements. These religious buildings emerged as merchants and scholars extended their trade routes from the Malian empire to the southern jungle areas. This trade led to an expansion of Islam and Islamic culture.
The eight mosques declared a World Heritage Site are the best preserved of the 20 that have survived. At the beginning of the 20th century there were several hundred, but today there are no traces of most of them.
There are seven towns and eight mosques because in Kong two are preserved: the large one (with a capacity for about 400 people) and the small one (which holds about 50), the latter in the Barora neighborhood. From it you can see the towers of the largest among a sea of modern zinc roofs. They are the only two vestiges that survive of what was the capital of the kingdom of Kong, a city that reached its splendor when the merchants of Mali began to penetrate the Senufo territory.
Dioula merchants settled there, transforming the city into a cross-border market where goods from the northern desert, such as salt and textiles, were exchanged for those from the jungles: kola nuts, gold and slaves, mainly. As Kong’s prosperity grew, his kings extended their authority over neighboring regions. In 1710 it was conquered by Sékou Oumar Ouattara, a Dioula warrior, and under his reign Kong became the capital of a powerful empire that dominated much of the region. The decline of the area began with the arrival of the first settlers. The French entered the city in February 1888 and signed a treaty with the king. The inhabitants of Kong saw in them some allies to resist their great enemy, the almamy Samory Touré, founder of the Wasoulou empire (1878-1898) and the French needed the subjugation of the Senufos to secure the borders of their colonies against the English advance from the current Ghana. An exciting story that the Ivorian writer Gauz masterfully collects in his novel Comrade Pope. An essential work of contemporary African literature, a must-read.
Nothing remains of the former splendor in present-day Kong city. Only the two mosques. Now Kong is an ugly city full of concrete houses and zinc roofs. It only boasts the privilege that the family of the current Ivorian president, Alassane Ouattara, comes from there, which means that all the roads that lead to it are paved and in good condition. That greatly facilitates access to it, which is not the case with the rest of the towns where the other six mosques that have shared the recognition with the two of Kong are located.
The large mosque can be visited outside of prayer hours. Electric lights give visibility to corridors covered with fine sand on which carpets and rugs are spread to facilitate the prayers of the faithful. Before the arrival of electricity, skylights on the roof, like jars mouths, on which heavy wooden discs rest, were opened at the beginning of prayers to illuminate the room. There is little else to see: walls, beams and ceilings formed with sticks. A staircase, also made of clay, with high and very irregular steps allowed the muezzin to climb up to the minaret to summon the faithful to prayer.
In principle, only men can visit the mosque, and “old women” adds the guide in French that is difficult to understand.
But once the loudspeakers have replaced the live human voice, today it serves so that the almost non-existent tourists who come there can go up to the roof. The light disturbs hundreds of small bats that inhabit the interior of the building causing them to break loose from the poles of the ceiling or the rafters and begin to flutter everywhere. In principle, only men can visit the mosque, and “old women” adds the guide in French that is difficult to understand. A Koranic school surrounded by walls in the same Sudanese style completes the complex.
The small mosque is built with a darker mud than the one used in the previous one and in front of it there is a large tomb of a holy man. Several sheep, the only living beings seen in their environment, take advantage of the shadow of its walls and rest peacefully between its buttresses. It is difficult to find a person who opens its doors to gain access to its interior.
It is much more difficult to reach the other six towns where the remaining mosques are preserved. The bumpy roads and distances make the task more difficult. Such is the case with Kouto for example. There, the small mosque (8 mx 8 m), looks like a miniature. The style is similar to the previous ones, but it is well differentiated by the tops of its pinnacles, a kind of clay helmets with three horns whose tips touch. It was built in the seventeenth century. The imam, a tall, lean man with very few words, opens the two side doors. The floor is concrete and covered by green rugs. Three rows of thick columns divide the enclosure. The Mihrab is hidden from the gaze of the faithful, hidden behind a thick wall. Stairs also lead to the roof of the building. Its yumur or top of the minaret is curious. This decorative element usually has three (like the small Kong construction) or two (like the large Kong construction) decreasing balls, but in this case it has five and a crescent.
Next to it stands a large modern monument before which the guardian of the enclosure rests, lying on a platform made of sticks. Neighbors cross the yard on their way to their concessions. The children of the surroundings immediately come to observe the visitors. There are usually not many who come to the town, although since the building was declared a World Heritage Site, “some more than usual have done so,” says the imam.
And is that each of the eight is unique and differs from the others. Each one has its own personality
Not far from that town is that of Tengréla, almost on the border with Mali. Bigger and taller and without the thick buttresses of his countrymen. And is that each of the eight is unique and differs from the others. Each one has its own personality.
All those in the north of the Ivory Coast are the second cultural property that has received the seal of world heritage after the historic city of Grand Bassam, the first colonial capital of the country, reached it in 2012. To these two are added three other natural assets also recognized by UNESCO: the integral nature reserve of Mount Nimba (shared with Guinea), the Taï national park and the Comoé national park.
The places declared patrimony of the humanity in the countries of sub-Saharan Africa are far fewer than in those recognized in other regions of the world. In the session held in July this year, after a 2020 without any due to the pandemic, UNESCO approved 36 new sites, of which only two are African: the mosques and the Ivindo National Park in Gabon.
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