The rhythm of a rural agrarian life
Adobe and thatch villages, which seemed to rise from the ground, forming an integral part of the landscape, once embodied the Senufo universe in the region of northern Côte d’Ivoire. The family enclosures of a traditional village came together in a natural design like a labyrinthine beehive. They were each surrounded by earthen walls that connected their round straw-roofed sleeping, cooking, and storage rooms. All the domestic activities of the extended family, from children to the elderly, took place in the central courtyard.
The village of Sirasso as well as the neighboring villages were interspersed with woods, streams and cultivated fields, all linked by a network of footpaths. The sacred grove was on the outskirts of the village, used for ceremonies by those permitted to enter. In Sirasso the place for the market each week was along the Korhogo roadway near the administrative quarter of the village.
Village life unfolded to the rhythm of daily activities and the seasons. A dry season and a rainy season dictated the course of life. During the rainy season, from May to September, everyone went to the fields to cultivate rice, maize, millet, yams, peanuts and vegetables. The dry season after the harvest was a time of abundance and celebration. Without having to be in the fields every day, they had more time. Funerals were often postponed to take place during the dry season so that there could be a big party. The dry season was also a time for building and repairing houses, with nature providing the weather, abundant dry straw that had grown in the rainy season for roofs, and the ideal conditions for making and drying mud bricks for the walls. It was a season of cultural and village renewal after half a year of constant work.
Next: A Sacred Rhythm of Life
I learned that their concept of divinity, called Kolotchielo, was a sense of the infinite spiral of life, the eternal cycle that continually governs birth, growth, death, and rebirth. (Read More >>)
