The Masons of Djenné: local knowledge and vernacular architecture
Trevor H.J. Marchand
ESRC Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Anthropology
School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London
Abstract
This paper explores the relation between local knowledge and vernacular architecture in Djenné, Mali. During a
mason’s apprenticeship, young men not only hone technical trade skills: they are also socialised with ethnic lore and
cultural values, and they learn powerful benedictions to protect building sites. Mastery of these various ways of
knowing becomes manifest in the mason’s competence to reproduce an environment that is both secure and
‘meaningful’. Accomplished craftsmen of the masons’ association, or barey ton, acquire the know-how for
negotiating the boundaries of ‘tradition’ while dynamically responding to the changing aspirations and lifestyles of
their patron-clients. Recognised masters creatively innovate in a manner that effectively expands the discursive
boundaries of tradition and what is popularly recognised as ‘authentic’ Djenné-style architecture. Based on
anthropological fieldwork as a building labourer, I explore the history and organisation of the barey ton, and the
apprenticeship training of the masons who renew the distinct form of this internationally-renowned place.
Keywords: Djenné, vernacular architecture, heritage, masons, barey ton, apprenticeship
Introduction: the study and the site
Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Djenné, my paper
first discusses the changing role and status of the
mason’s association, the barey ton, from its near
collapse during the drought period in the 1970’s and
1980s to its recovery over the past two decades. I next
focus on the masons and describe their apprenticeship
system and the route to becoming recognised as a
‘master’ of the trade. Using case studies of the builders I
worked with during anthropological fieldwork, my
objective is to convey the importance of the masterapprentice relation and the professional association in
sustaining Djenné’s architectural heritage and an
enduring sense of ‘place’ for its inhabitants. I argue that,
in their training, young masons acquire not only
technical competency, but also worldviews, social
skills, trade secrets and a sense of moral duty.
Participation in the barey ton educates members to
respect hierarchy, to negotiate differences without
causing loss of face to either party, and to perform
within an established division of labour. By operating
within these constraints, masons also learn to respond to
the changing world around them and to innovate in
ways that expand the architectural repertoire and
transform their professional roles.
It is important to underline that a mason’s identity, like
any craftsperson, extends beyond his building activities
to include his social constitution and economic pursuits
outside the trade. Various factors such as family ranking
in the social order; his age and ethnicity; his personal
connections, and his knowledge of the Qur‛an, all
contribute to his professional profile and his chances of
success. A mason’s persona is judged by both the
competency of his hands and his moral formation. By
necessity, most masons juggle a number of secondary
occupations outside Djenné’s regular building season.
The building season is brief, coinciding with the dry,
cool winter months when water levels surrounding the
town recede and the muddy riverbanks become
brickyards. By mid-April, with rising temperatures and
the coming rains, many masons take up petty trading,
agriculture, or fishing; and some travel to the capital,
Bamako, or further a field, to labour on construction
sites of a larger scale where they gain experience
working with formwork and steel-reinforced concrete.
All of the masons I worked with are town residents, and
the majority are the sons of families with long
established roots in Djenné. Economically, most
builders straddle the lower to middle reaches of the
country’s emergent middle-class; and from a social
perspective, they are highly regarded for their technical
expertise and popularly recognised to possess potent
trade-related secrets. Though many are illiterate or
semi-literate, often without any formal schooling and
minimal Qur‛anic training, a few are educated to
secondary-level and others are versed in the religious
scriptures and can flawlessly recite full suwar (chapters
of the Qur‛an). Notably, access to formal education is
being increasingly extended to all groups in Djenné, and
more generally throughout the country.
Labour corps on building sites regularly comprise a mix
of local men and religious students who travel to Djenné
to study the Qur‛an with the town’s esteemed
marabouts (Islamic scholars and teachers). During
winter months, and between seasonal agriculture and
fishing, resident men work in construction to
supplement their incomes. By contrast, the Qur‛anic
students (garibou or talibé) work in order to pay for
board and lessons. Many marabouts send their students
to beg for alms from neighbouring households, and
older ones are directed to prospective employers, such
as masons. The youngest boys struggle with baskets of
mud mortar and bricks and earn a small wage, but
stronger ones are hired as full labourers and are
expected to bear a heavy workload. Student-labourers
1
cannot normally expect to be taken on as apprentices.
Masons waste little effort in teaching them technical
skills, and they never share trade secrets. Since many
come from outlying regions, and from as far away as
Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso, garibou are considered
to be ‘foreigners’; and those from local families
generally have no historic connections to the building
trade. Their site roles are therefore limited to
performing manual chores such as unloading materials,
fetching water, mixing mud mortar, preparing plaster,
cutting palm-wood, stacking bricks, and relaying all of
these in assembly-line fashion to the masons and
apprentices who do the actual building work.
A myriad of languages are spoken on some sites, and
Bambara and French serve as the lingua franca in lieu
of Djenné-Chiini (a local dialect of Songhay) which is
popularly spoken by the established town residents.
Masonry is dominated by members of the Bozo
community, an ethnic group customarily associated with
fishing and boating in the Inland Niger Delta region. At
the time of my fieldwork, however, there was also
representation of Marka and Hourso among the masons,
the latter being a former servant class rather than an
ethnically-defined community. This penetration of nonBozo into the trade is partially explained by the decades
of drought during the 1970s and 1980s when numerous
masons abandoned Djenné in search of work, and
members of other groups were gradually trained by the
remaining masons. Diversification in the local building
industry continues, indicating actual porosity and
fluidity in the trade boundaries despite frequent Bozo
claims to the contrary.
The masons’ trade and their corporate organisation in
Djenné is centuries old. During his post as Colonial
Administrator at Djenné, the masons confirmed to
Monteil “qu’ils travaillent suivant les principes hérités
d’un Marocain qu’ils nomment malum Idriss.”
Presumably it was the ascription of Moroccan identity
to this patriarchal figure that led Monteil to conclude
that this malum (i.e. a learned or accomplished
individual) lived in the seventeenth or eighteenth
century (1932:83), thereby confirming ancient roots of
the trade, at least in lore. Masons claim that every
household in Djenné is contractually bound to a
particular mason or family of masons, and these ties of
patronage extend back through the generations. When
masons retire or die, they may bestow family-clients
upon sons, nephews or selected disciples who formerly
apprenticed under them.
Building contracts between masons and clients take one
of three forms. Firstly, a client may decide to control all
project finances and, with guidance from his mason, he
purchases the materials and pays the building team
members (including in this instance the apprentice) a
daily wage. Alternatively, a client can retain
responsibility for organising and buying materials, but
arrive at an agreed price with the mason for the total
cost of the labour. In this scenario, the mason is issued
with cash advances from which he pays his labourers a
weekly salary. Lastly, for a total sum, the mason may be
delegated the entire responsibility for both materials and
labour. This latter form of contract presents the mason
with the greatest risk, but also offers the experienced
project manager potential for the greatest profit.
Wages are distributed on Sunday, the last of the six-day
workweek. Monday is the official market day in Djenné,
and those not involved in market trading recuperate
before the start of a new week. When I commenced my
study in 2001, a labourer’s daily wage was 750 CFA,
and masons commanded 2500 CFA. If an apprentice is
paid at all, he receives the equivalent sum as a labourer.
Fees are set by the barey ton, and they are universally
honoured. A handful of clients additionally provide their
work force with a typical lunch of rice and fish sauce at
midday, but many builders toil from early morning until
three o’clock in the afternoon, and sometimes later,
without any prolonged break. Team members pause
periodically to share a glass of tea or a ladle of millet
porridge to reinvigorate energy levels.
In this everyday setting of the building site, I immersed
myself as a labourer and apprentice in order to learn
about learning. Two fieldwork seasons of constructing,
repairing and plastering mud houses, and subsequent
annual visits with my mason colleagues, have enabled
me to consider the intricate weave of handiwork with
social knowledge, and the ways in which craft expertise
is communicated on site, and across generations. My
ethnographic writing has addressed diverse topics such
as trade innovation, site banter, skill-based knowledge,
embodied communication and the daily lives and
struggles of Djenné’s masons. In the following sections
of this paper, I offer a summary description of the
town’s ancient building trade and the structured
formation of its formidable and resilient practitioners.
The Masons’ Association
Djenné’s community of masons is essentially a
gerontocracy, embodied in the guild-like association of
the barey ton. Barey translates to ‘builder or mason’ and
ton, a Mandé term, means ‘association’. The masons’
association is presided over by a chief, or barey bumo,
chosen by the senior members of the association.
During the early decades of French colonial rule,
Charles Monteil noted in his writings that the barey
bumo was selected by the town’s chief:
“Le chef de la corporation des baris est
choisi par le chef de la ville de Djénné
parmi les plus intelligents et les plus
capables: c’est une manière d’architecte
local généralement fort habile. Il est obéi
et écouté des autres bari qui
n’entreprennent rien sans ses ordres. Car,
très superstitieux, comme les gens
simples, les baris sont convaincus que
leur chef a un pourvoir occulte sur tous
leurs travaux: s’il est mécontent ou mal
disposé à leur égard, il peut leur jeter un
mauvais sort tel que tout ce qu’ils
édifieront s’écroulera.” (1932:252)
2
Within the present trade community, there are
essentially four ranks of builders starting at the lowest
level with the apprentices. When qualified, young
masons may take commissions and build independently
of their former master(s). Above the rank of the younger
tradesmen are more senior masons who are active in the
professional association; and at the top of the pecking
order are the master masons who have retired from
active building but who play a determining role in the
trade community as decision-makers. The latter are also
consulted for technical advice as well as their occult
knowledge. In conversation, old masons recollect that
the barey ton once operated a central fund that was
sustained by regular contributions from members. The
fund was drawn upon to provide security for retired or
injured masons, and to assist junior ones with the
burden of wedding costs and birthing celebrations.
Until the early 1970s, the barey ton firmly controlled
the production of Djenné’s architectural heritage, and
masons report that their association was strong and well
organised. Wages were fixed and clients duly rewarded
masons for their services and expert knowledge. The
work force was supplied with breakfast and a hearty
lunch by the client, and a steady supply of kola nuts
comprised part of the remunerations. During the
drought-afflicted decades of the 1970s and 80s,
however, large numbers of young men, including
masons, left Djenné and other towns and villages of the
Inland Niger Delta region to work in Bamako, Dakar
and Abidjan. Many never returned. This period of
severe economic hardship witnessed serious degradation
of the town’s mud buildings and a general decline of the
traditional authority of the barey ton. Builders – many
of whose sideline economies of fishing and agriculture
had been decimated – competed against one another for
the scarce commissions available. The practice of
supplying daytime meals was gradually phased out,
masons’ incomes plummeted, and the structure and
authority of their professional association largely
collapsed.
Better rainfall and a recovering economy in the late
1980s led to increased building activity. The barey ton
began a slow process of reconsolidation, but faced
uncertain recovery of its former authority and power.
The association’s social and professional status was
diminished, and the scope of the masons’ practice
confronted a new threat: new materials and building
technologies – namely cement breezeblocks, corrugated
metal sheeting, steel-reinforced concrete and the use of
formwork – were encroaching upon Djenné’s
architectural landscape of crafted mud.
Longstanding relations between many masons and their
client-families in the historic quarters of Djenné
survived, however, and others were revived and new
ones established with households in the expanding
quarters at the town’s periphery. The single-storey
constructions in the new quarters are laid out on a
rectilinear grid of wide roads, and few are embellished
with the decorative and structural features that
distinguish the so-called style-Soudanese buildings. A
handful of masons who returned from working abroad
possessed the skills to build with the ‘modern’ materials
that some clients desired and could now afford. But an
ongoing neglect and decay of the historic mud
buildings, in conjunction with a progressive
abandonment of the traditional styles and forms on new
construction, prompted national and international
concern that Djenné’s architectural heritage was under
serious threat. Growing awareness of the situation
resulted in the town’s inclusion on UNESCO’s roster of
World Heritage sites in 1988, along with the adjacent
archaeological site of Djenné-Djeno.
Attempts to foster local understanding and appreciation
of ‘heritage’ were led by the Malian government’s
newly installed Cultural Mission Office. Images of
Djenné’s architecture and archaeology were woven
strategically into issues of national identity, the tourist
economy and international development funding. The
emergent discourse on heritage and conservation has
sparked competitive positions and divided opinion into
an array of different camps. Masons – the pivotal agents
in producing and reproducing Djenné’s urban landscape
– have carved their own space within the debates and
planning, and as a result have been vested with a degree
of authority by governmental and non-governmental
bodies with staked interests in the town’s conservation.
The barey ton subsequently reinstated a mason’s fixed
wage at 1500 CFA per day, and this was again increased
in the early 1990s to 2000 CFA. Despite the growth in
their autonomy and potential wealth, the former sense of
community within the professional association and its
ability to implement co-operative efforts nevertheless
remained fragile.
Coordinated efforts between Dutch and Malian experts
yielded a robust plan for rehabilitating and conserving
Djenné’s architecture. Backed by European funding, the
six-year project was divided into three phases that were
launched in 1996. A final fourth phase aimed to
preserve the conservation efforts through scheduled
programmes of annual maintenance; the generation of
grass-roots interests in heritage; and the publishing of
project results (Bedaux et al, 1995:24). Individual
masons, and the barey ton more generally, were key
players in the successful implementation of the project.
Renewal and reproduction of traditional trade skills was
a principal objective. Masons were offered chances to
restore (and reconstruct) the most celebrated Tukolor
and Moroccan-style houses. The intimate first-hand
knowledge they gained regarding spatial layout,
traditional palm-wood ceiling construction, interior
mud-plaster decoration, sculpted decorative forms and
aesthetic proportioning was progressively inscribed in
their embodied practices, and is therefore available to
successive generations of apprentices.
Architects and technicians produced carefully measured
drawn plans, facades and sections of the selected
buildings for restoration. Historically, Djenné masons
have built without drawing (and most continue to do
so), but a handful seized the learning opportunity to
become conversant with plans on paper. The project
3
also broadened the discourse on heritage and
‘authenticity’, soliciting opinion from masons and
members of the general public alike. This invaluable
exchange has generated evolving ideas and practices
regarding Djenné’s place in the nation and a globalising
Africa. Prior to the project, the majority of young
masons had received no training in accurately
calculating materials and construction costs. The project
provided important exercises to increase levels of
numeracy and operate with fixed budgets. Arguably,
these are vital skills for functioning in a local and
national economy that is rapidly becoming exclusively
monetary as opposed to barter-based.
With progression of the Malian-Dutch restoration
programme, the collective voice of barey ton members
became more assertive in decisions concerning the
town’s buildings. The influx of foreign capital for the
project motivated masons to augment their wages,
setting new daily rates for masons and labourers at 2500
CFA and 750 CFA respectively. A mason’s earnings
now exceed those of the average civil servant. Outside
experts involved with the project have expressed grave
concern that masons’ pay demands are unrealistic and
likely to be untenable over the long term. Few local
clients can afford such high fees, and there are
speculations that regular maintenance will cease and
Djenné’s historic buildings will be vulnerable once
again to the destructive effects of rains, harmattan
winds, and the intense sunshine of the Sahel.
The gradual recovery of the barey ton spurred the
revival of its meetings. In theory, these are held on the
last Sunday of the lunar month at the house of the barey
bumo, and every qualified mason is welcome to attend.
Many, in fact, do not participate on a regular basis, and
younger members tend to rely on senior colleagues to
relay news about relevant events or items of business.
Masons may also elect to send apprentices in their stead.
Apprentices are not expected to participate in
discussion, but rather they listen and report back to their
masters. The numbers of masons in attendance is
dependent on the season and availability, but it is
reported that between thirty and forty of the total two
hundred or so masons in and around Djenné are
normally present.
The main purpose of meetings is to organise the
division of labour for large public projects (i.e. such as
building the town’s hospital or a new school); to
mediate conflicts arising between masons and clients, or
disputes between masons over territory and resources;
and to discipline rogue practitioners in the trade.
Regular meetings, it is argued, nurture a sense of
solidarity and enable the masons to act effectively as a
lobby that is capable of defining and negotiating
working conditions, pay and professional status within
the broader community.
Barey ton meetings are customarily launched by a
senior mason who sets the agenda and announces the
significant issues to be discussed, after which the floor
is open to any members who wish to speak. Seating
arrangements are normally segregated along age-set
lines, and young tradesmen respectfully defer decisionmaking power to the seniors. During debate, the trade
masters arrive at a consensus through carefully balanced
negotiation in a jury-like manner. Formal exchanges are
audibly repeated by a designated intermediary seated
centrally in the meeting space. Descendents of the
town’s former servant caste, the Hourso, continue to
play this role. Hourso individuals are sanctioned to cast
jests and criticisms that other citizens dare not vocalise
for fear of repercussions. For their service as acting
intermediaries at social functions including weddings
and circumcisions, as well as their special benedictions,
Hourso are presented with gifts. In recent decades,
several have taken up trade apprenticeships to become
full-fledged masons.
The most important annual event organised by the barey
ton is the re-plastering of the town’s Mosque. With the
use of astrology and lunar predictions, the masons
calculate an auspicious date for the festive ritual,
scheduled toward the end of the dry winter season. They
organise the division of labour and are assisted in
securing the materials and equipment. This massive
project demands participation from nearly every Djenné
resident: young able-bodied adolescents transport
endless basket-loads of mud to the site; unmarried
women carry buckets of water to bare-legged children
who trample the oozing mixture into a fine consistency;
and masons, with the nimble assistance of other agile
men, scale high wooden ladders and the protruding
palm-wood toron to apply the plaster with sweeping
hand motions. In return for the mason’s services,
prominent townspeople donate rice, grains, millet
porridge and money to the barey ton, and these are
divided among masters who in turn provide for their
trainees.
Becoming a Mason
In Djenné, parents and guardians regularly make career
choices on behalf of children, and in trades such as
masonry, carpentry, pirogue-building, tailoring,
embroidering and shoemaking, training is usually
arranged under the guidance of a suitable mentor who is
either from the family or a known acquaintance. Among
other skilled groups, such as the blacksmiths and their
potter wives, children often follow the career paths of
parents and marry endogamously within the trade group
(de Ceuninck & Mayor, 1994). In masonry, however,
only a few, or none, of the sons may take up their
father’s trade. Today, children are being sent to school
in growing numbers, responding to the nation’s
ambitions to raise literacy and numeracy. Some
continue onto secondary education and pursue
professions outside the traditional craft trades; and if
opportunity presents itself, they follow employment to
larger towns and cities. Masons are thus increasingly
forced to mentor willing pupils from other families, and
in some cases from non-Bozo groups.
In such cases, the mason and guardian make a verbal
agreement regarding the young man’s tuition. In
exchange for the transmission of skilled practice and
4
eventual qualifications, the apprentice is expected to
reciprocate with respect, obedience and free labour for
the duration of his training lasting typically five or more
years. In the Mandé cultures of southern Mali (of which
Djenné sits at the northern peripheries), knowledge, and
especially trade ‘secrets’, are conventionally paid for in
some agreed manner, including with physical labour.
Masons report that, in the past, it was customary for
apprentices to offer small gifts of kola nuts or money
(the so-called ‘prix de kola’ or ‘prix de thé’) to his
master. Though this is no longer standard practice,
junior masons continue to present gifts to their former
mentors and to retired colleagues. They explain that the
gifts are an outward sign of respect, and offerings secure
lines of patronage in the awarding of new contracts.
Gifts also serve to counteract the power of curses or
malevolent wishes.
In reciprocation, an apprentice may receive small sums
of money from his master, usually during the Islamic
holiday of tabaski (eid al-kabir). The mason-teacher can
also be expected to pay for medicine if his apprentice
falls ill, and he may occasionally provide a new article
of clothing. Wedding arrangements and expenses are
left in the hands of the boy’s parents, but masons lend
assistance depending on the family’s financial
resources. For masons, having apprentices endorses
their own qualifications and it connotes public prestige.
It also allows masons to secure control over the
reproduction of their trade knowledge and to perpetuate
the craft through successive generations. It is therefore
beneficial to foster paternal, enduring relations with the
young men one trains, and to offer continued mentoring
after they qualify.
At the start of a traditional apprenticeship, boys as
young as six and seven years old may follow fathers,
uncles and older siblings to building sites for their first
exposure to the trade. Between play, they are delegated
simple tasks such as scraping caked mud from the tools,
carrying small loads of building materials and fetching
glasses of sugar-saturated tea for the workers. In these
early years, young boys mainly watch and some attempt
to emulate their tutor by laying bricks or smoothing
plaster with bare hands. As they grow older, they are
delegated increasing responsibility and they are
expected to work closely at the mason’s side, formally
learning the skills of the trade as an apprentice, or
dyenté idyé. That privileged position on the worksite
offers regulated access to the mason’s draw-string sack
of essential tools: namely the crowbar (sasiré), plumbline (guru karfo), tape measure (Fr. mètre), string-level,
and two types of trowels. The larger and sturdier of the
trowels is manufactured by local blacksmiths and is
coined the trouèl courou bibi (literally ‘black-skin
trowel’); and the smaller, finely-pointed trouèl francais
is imported for delicate plasterwork and sculpting
architectural decorations in soft mud.
Through assisting, observing, engaging in careful
mimesis and repeatedly practicing, the new apprentice
hones his tool-wielding techniques and measured
judgement. By listening to the mason’s stories about the
houses and inhabitants of the quarters where they work,
the young man is gradually versed in the lore of
Djenné’s urban environment. They also listen to tales
about historic feats performed by legendary master
builders, and they are witness to repeated claims about
the Bozo’s historic domination of the trade in towns and
villages throughout the region. Now and again,
apprentices tag along to meetings with clients and
suppliers where they are audience to skilled negotiations
over budgets and scheduling. On site, they listen to, and
observe, the mason’s management of his labour force,
and they are occasionally exposed to politically charged
interactions between competing masons.
Masons teach trusted apprentices to recite benedictions
that protect the building team and worksites from harm,
and that ward off dangerous spells cast by powerful
mason-adversaries. Their benedictions and spells
comprise a mix of ‘white’ Qur‛anic-based knowledge
(bai quaré) and ‘black-African’ animist knowledge (bai
bibi), and they may employ blessed objects and amulets
in the laying of foundations and construction of walls.
Over the course of his career, a capable mason
accumulates a cache of secret rites performed to
exorcise the land and buildings of evil djinn spirits, and
to guarantee the structural integrity of the edifices he
erects. In combination, masonry techniques, urban and
ethnic lore, business skills and magic slowly forge the
apprentice’s professional practice and his identity as a
member of the barey ton’s corporate trade community.
Junior apprentices are frequently assigned work
alongside the labourers, performing the same manual
tasks. From a practical viewpoint, there is often
insufficient room next to the mason for more than one
apprentice at a time, especially when the mason is
teetering on the top of a wall laying courses of bricks or
aligning ceiling beams. In these cases, he retains the
most senior trainee at his side and delegates groundlevel tasks to the others. Working with the labourers
serves to immerse the apprentice in the basic activities
of the building process, and thereby, over the long term,
broaden his understanding of the organisation and
mechanics of a construction site. While working as a
labourer, the young man is introduced to the qualities,
preparation and efficient handling of the building
materials; and he is inculcated with a sense of discipline
in thought and action, preparing him to approach his
ongoing learning and future tasks with diligence and
concentration.
“Come here and watch carefully!” commands the
mason, summoning his apprentice to either observe the
execution of a new skill-demanding task, or to amend
his mistakes and bad habits by way of a correct
example. A few, choice verbal cues direct the young
man’s attention to salient aspects of the practical
demonstration, and the mason demands that he repeat
the task in order to monitor his pupil’s progress. Ideally,
masons strive to speak and gesture with calm resolve
while exercising authority. This professional attitude
fosters a mutual respect between the two men, and
5
simultaneously defines and sustains the masterapprentice hierarchy.
Apprentices born into a paternal line of masons are
sometimes tutored by a member of their extended
family – often an uncle or cousin – rather than their own
fathers. During the course of training, they circulate
between several masons with the benefit of being
exposed to different expertise, and being more fully
integrated within, and acknowledged by, the trade
community. This arrangement also enables the young
men to earn a salary that they normally don’t receive
when working directly for their own master.
The apprentice’s first major test arrives when requested
to construct a brick wall. He must demonstrate the
necessary skills for erecting a perfectly vertical structure
without flaws. If mistakes are made, the wall must be
dismantled and he begins anew. If he succeeds, and can
do so repeatedly, the mason presents his apprentice with
a plumb-line. This elementary tool heralds the young
man’s rising status; but he is not promoted to the rank of
mason until some time afterwards. Final judgement
ultimately rests with his master. When he deems that his
protégé is fully qualified to oversee trade duties in an
autonomous manner, he announces his decision at the
barey ton meeting. It is anticipated that the association
members will accept their colleague’s judgement
without objection. In effect, the decision concerning the
young man’s qualifications has already been a shared
one. As an apprentice circulates between projects and
masons throughout the duration of his training, the
members of this close-knit trade are progressively
familiarised with the young man’s conduct and his
trade-related skills, and they collectively orchestrate his
formation. Learning and formation are not encapsulated
in the one-on-one master-apprentice relation, but rather
they are manifest within the broader community of
practitioners. Only a foolhardy mason would champion
the promotion of an incompetent pupil, since, by
consequence, he would be jeopardising his own
reputation for sound and responsible judgement.
After informing the barey ton of his decision, the mason
delivers the news to his apprentice’s family.
Benedictions (gara) are made for the young man’s
prosperous future as a craftsman, and then the mason
presents him with a courou-bibi trowel and a flared-end
sasiré crowbar to complete his basic kit of tools. These
gifts from the master validate the transformation of the
boy’s many years of sweat and toil to his new
professional status.
Newly-declared masons continue to work with former
masters or family members, but they are now paid a
daily wage. In the early days of his new role, a young
mason usually works with a senior colleague, assisting
more directly in the actual building processes than he
did as an apprentice. By doing so, he perfects his
existing skills and learns new tasks with ongoing
supervision and mentoring. By way of example, he
learns to communicate with clients and translate their
needs and aspirations into spatial planning and
buildings. He also learns to negotiate contracts,
calculate budgets, schedule work, estimate quantities,
order materials, and manage his labour force.
Eventually, the junior mason can expect to be delegated
larger tasks and to execute projects on his own with a
team of labourers under his sole direction. It remains
likely that his work will monitored by seniors, but his
gains in responsibility are an important stride toward
assuming complete autonomy and, hopefully, his own
clientele.
When a master retires or dies, a handful of his former
apprentices may be fortunate to inherit clientele;
otherwise they remain highly dependent on fellow
colleagues for employment. This tenuous situation can
persist well into a mason’s career unless they manage to
acquire their own patrons. The progress of many
masons is severely obstructed by a paucity of inherited
client connections and the lack of new building projects.
Regrettably, some young and talented masons face no
alternative but to abandon the profession and search for
other forms of work in Mali’s impoverished and volatile
economy.
Summary
Djenné’s tradition of monumental mud architecture has
survived centuries of political, socio-economic and
environmental change, and it continues to be a pivotal
force in constructing both the town’s urban identity and
a Malian nation state. My fieldwork has identified two
major components in the reproduction of the town’s
architectural heritage: namely the trade association, or
barey ton, and the masons’ apprenticeship training
system. The defining role of the former is to provide an
organised forum for professional negotiation and
consensus, and thereby sustain a united trade
community. The function of the latter is the
transmission and perpetuation of skill-based knowledge
across generations. In combination, the barey ton and
apprenticeship system produces agents who are not
merely technically competent, but craft experts with
recognised status and ethical duty. A guarded lore of
secret incantations and benedictions, as well as claims
to ethnicity, religious identity and local histories, is
inculcated in young builders from their earliest days as
labourers on construction sites. This rich interweave of
factors engenders a distinctive comportment of body
and mind that is ultimately manifest in the persona of
the master mason.
Masonry knowledge and practices have evolved in
response to a changing world, and they will continue to
do so for the foreseeable future. The architecture of
Djenné, like any place, is a living tradition whose
function and value are constantly re-negotiated in the
discursive flux that is propagated by residents,
governments, academics, conservation experts, tourists,
and the masons themselves.
6
Acknowledgements
I thank the British Academy and the School of Oriental
& African Studies for the generous grants in support of
my two fieldwork seasons in Djenné, and to the ESRC
for funding my present study of apprenticeship and
building-craft knowledge. I also thank Professor Rogier
Bedaux and the Mission Culturelle in Djenné, and to the
masons who generously shared their knowledge and
lives with me.
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