Movement
Sudano-Sahelian Architecture
Explore in the Atlas →The indigenous earthen building tradition of West Africa across the Sahel and Sudanian savanna, characterised by load-bearing sun-dried mud brick (adobe), projecting wooden torons used as permanent scaffolding for communal replastering, conical pinnacles and the thermal mass of mud walls. Best understood as a centuries-long synthesis of indigenous West African and Islamic practice, exemplified by the Great Mosque of Djenné.
Dwelling Ritual Collectivity
Details
- Origin
- West Africa (Sahel and Sudanian savanna)
Classifications
- Holder
- Communal intergenerational
- Source of authority
- AncestryRevelation cosmology
- Subject
- More than human
- Degree of codification
- Protocol performedPattern based
- Mode of transmission
- ApprenticeshipOral song embodied
- Knowledge type
- Relational embodied
- Epistemic cluster
- AfricanIslamic mena
Sources
- Labelle Prussin. Hatumere: Islamic Design in West Africa. University of California Press, 1986.
- Various. Sudano-Sahelian architecture. Wikipedia, 2024.
Cite this entry
First published May 2026Last revised Jul 2026
CLAD. "Sudano-Sahelian Architecture." Atlas of Architectural Thought. CLAD, 2026. https://www.cl-ad.com.au/research/atlas/movement/sudano-sahelian-architecture/. Accessed July 17, 2026.