How to build a Fulani hut
Fulani huts around Gorom-Gorom are easily-transportable igloo-shaped mat huts, characteristic of their traditional semi-nomadic lifestyle. Fulani in Burkina Faso are now much more settled, and these huts are now often supplemented by mud-brick ones, as in this village near Gorom-Gorom. This is how a fulani hut is made (click on any photo for a larger version):
First, make your bed
Traditional Fulani huts around Gorom-Gorom are made by women, usually at the time when a young man is getting married, as a home for his bride.
The hut is built around the bed, which is made as a frame of forked uprights with sticks lying across the top, on top of which will be laid woven grass mats.
Build the frame
Branches, or looci, which have been prepared by soaking in the mud of a nearby river or water hole to make them supple, are collected. These are then bent together and tied into an "igloo-shaped" frame around the bed.
Cover with mats
Woven straw mats are tied on the outside of the frame. Usually a family will have a "good" set of mats for dry season, and they will be replaced by an older set during the rainy season. The mats do a surprisingly good job of keeping out the rain, but inevitably get ruined by the weather.
The whole house is easily taken apart and tied onto donkeys or camels if the time comes for literally moving home.
A new home
This is what the finished article looks like from the outside. The small doorway faces away from the direction the wind comes from, to keep dust from filling your house.
I should add here that this was not made for my bride, but as a guest room, much to the amusement of my Fulani friends, who kept asking when my wife was arriving.
Inside a Fulani hut
This is what a traditional Fulani mat hut is like on the inside. My friend's wife and child are on the bed. This one room obviously has to function as sitting room and dining-room as well as bedroom.
Don't forget the cows!
No Fulani home is complete without a few cows around the place. They give it that extra homely feel. Of course, cow dung is also occasionally spread on the outside of the hut to stop goats from eating it.
