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Beauty From Mud: House Decoration Among the Danagla of Sudan
| Article
# : |
20402 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
3 / 1992 |
3,634 Words |
| Author
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Randall Fegley
Randall Fegley lived in a mud house in the Danagla area of the
Sudan for four years while serving as a teacher and
educational administrator for the Sudanese government. Today,
he teaches history and political science at Pennsylvania State
University's Schuylkill campus and Harrisburg Area Community
College. |
While I flew over the Nile between the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, and the area inundated by the Aswan High Dam, the summer landscape before my eyes was a starkly shaded tan. The temperamental Nile tumbled in an Shsaped path toward the Mediterranean, and along its banks was an amazing assortment of browns and tans. The khaki expanses of desert seemed endless. Every breeze was flecked with a dusty tan, giving a nutmeg tint to even the trees and crops.
Upon landing in Dongola, the capital of Sudan's Northern Province, I found that the variety of earthen hues multiplied considerably. On closer examination, I found I could not tabulate all of the items made of the earth that colored call of life in this bleak environment. The streets were lined with mud houses, mosques, and criminal corrals, all plastered with animal dung. Special mud jars for storing water, known as zears, were found in every house and public gathering place. Off in a back corner in each dwelling was an oven of mud.
There is little more than the earth to work within the region inhabited by the Danagla tribe. Few of the Danagla can even imagine greenery without man's constant irrigation. Colors and experiences are limited. Even nature provides little in the way of color, for most of the region's fauna, camels, hyenas, gazelles, birds, and reptiles are camouflaged to hide in their surroundings. But human beings have seldom failed to use even meager resources to embellish their surroundings. What the Danagla have been able to build out of little more than the ground they walk on is nothing short of remarkable.
When it comes to mud building most people in the western word don't know what to think. Mud is seen as dirt, and the very thought of using dung as plaster turns many a modern stomach. The mud hut is regarded as the epitome of backwardness. Mud reminds us of our own less than serious creation of mud pies during childhood. Yet, visitors marvel at the sprawling pueblos of Arizona and New Mexico and the awe-inspiring edifices of Timbuktu, Mud may be an unfashionable medium today, but within the overall history of architecture, it has perhaps been more important than any other single material.
Methods of earthen construction
Throughout history, numerous methods of earthen construction have been developed. Many dwellings on all continents were traditionally built of mud. Mud and woven stick construction, known as wattle and daub, housed countless millions over the
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