BATAMMARIBA (TAMBERMA) PEOPLE: AFRICA`S INDIGENOUS ARCHITECTURALLY ADVANCED PEOPLE AND PENIS ELONGATION AND ENLARGEMENT SPECIALISTS

Batammariba (also known as Tamberma, Somba, Bataba, Batammaraba, Ditamari, Niend and Tamari) are agro-pastoralist Oti-Volta, Gur-speaking and indigenous architecturally advanced people living in the mountainous regions of two West African countries of Togo and Benin.

   Tamberma (Batammariba) women wearing their traditional antelope headdress, Togo. Yves Regaldi

In Togo, they are residing in the northeastern Kara regions of Northern Togo with the Kabye (kabre) people,who are the second largest tribe in Togo.

                                     Tamberma (Batamariba) woman wearing antelope hedddress,Togo

 However, Batammariba are internationally famous than their neighbours, Kabye people, as a result of their indigenous architectural expertise. In Benin where they are known as Somba, they occupy the rugged Atakora mountain range (Atakora Department) of northwestern Benin sharing border with their Gur relatives in neighbouring Burkina Faso who also possess keen interest in architecture.

                                   Batammariba man playing traditional musical instrument. Yves Regaldi                     

The Batammariba or Somba people are historically known for their ancient penis elongation and enlargement techniques. The Somba people practice this technique during male initiation into adulthood. A traditional herbs is pounded and robbed on the penis.

                 Somba initiates undergoing penis elongation practice. Circa 1910

After that, a branch of tree or an ivory is cut and a hole of a particular size is made for the initiate. The initiate put his penis in it for some months until it reach a particular size and length of his choice then he removes it. 

Somba (Batammariba) man with his elongated and enlarged penis. Circa 1953

Somba means 'naked;' the Somba still live in their traditional ways and in certain Tayaba-Somba tribes, the fetish priests still dress in a simple loincloth and the women wear only sarongs.

                                  Batammariba people

The Batammariba are estimated to be about 176000, with an estimated number (majority) of about 140,000 living in Benin and about 36,000 of them living in Togo. A person from Tamberma tribe  is called Otammari, call themselves as Betammaribe and their language as Ditammari.

Batammariba woman from Koutammakou, Togo

The name Batammariba means "the people who are the real builders of earth." The colonialist also gave them the name Tamberma which means “Good Builders.”  Most Batammariba resides in Koutammakou popularly referred to as "the land of the Batammariba," a traditional settlement known for the architecture of mud Takienta tower-houses. These buildings have two stories, and either flat or conical thatched roofs.

                                        Batammariba homestead

Location
Africa | Tamberma initiate.  Northern Benin | ©Michel Renaudeau
Tamberma initiate. Northern Benin | ©Michel Renaudeau

The Batammariba people can be found in mountainous and sloppy-stony valleys of Kara region, Kande Prefecture, east of Kanté, and Benin border.Their main centers are Nadoba, Wantema, Warengo, Koutougou.

                                Batammariba settlement

 In Benin The Somba is from Atakora, a mountainous area in the North East of Togo of about 2 700 km2, between 9° 38’ N and 10° 38’ N and 1° 30’ E and 2° E.(Adanléhoussi et al., 2003). They can be located in Atakora Province, Boukombe and Natitingou sub-prefectures; along Djougou-Parakou road.

                                      Tamberma settlement

Language
The Batammariba speak Ditammari, an Oti-Volta language which belongs to Gurma languages of larger Niger-Congo family. The Batammariba language relates to other Gurma languages such as Gangan, Gurma, Moba, Bassar, Nawda, etc.

   The Batammariba Girl with the Striking Eyes, Koutammakou, Togo. By wildernesstravel

History
As it happens to most small indigenous African tribes that have occupied their land for ages, the origins of the Batammariba are somewhat uncertain.
endilletante:

Les Batammariba, le peuple vivant de Dominique Sewane. Editions La Martinière, 2004.
Fonds Albert-Marie Maurice, Bénin (1949-1950).
Région de Natitingou.
http://whc.unesco.org/fr/list/1140
Koutammoukou, the Land of the Batammariba is a cultural landscape designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in northern Togo. The area features traditional mud tower-houses which remain the preferred style of living. (Wikipédia).
Batammariba man,Kara,Togo. Circa 1949

 Archaeological investigations and oral history indicates that the Batammariba migrated to their present home from the north and northwest around Burkina Faso where they were living with the Mossi people sometime between the 16th and 18th centuries.

Somba Warriors fighting with tribal weapons,Benin. rosemarysheel.



             Batammariba people coming from their house, Koutammakou, Togo

This historical account could be true as the language and building style reflects that of other people in the area such as the Gangan, Gurma, Moba, Bassar, Nawda, etc.

                                 Batammariba family enjoying story by the fireside
Economy
The Tamberma are agro-pastoralists by tradition. Creation and accumulation of capital heritage is based
on chickens, their primary livestock. Poultry are sold or exchanged for sheep or goats which may then be
commercialized to buy cattle (N’Poh and N’Guissan,1998). The size of a family’s herd is a sign of its wealth.
Livestock are for security and play a role in the community’s spiritual life (N’Poh et N’Guissan, 1998). Eighty percent of animals are raised for socio-cultural purposes (52 percent for funerals and 28 percent as
dowries), leaving only 20 percent for sale (N’Poh and N’Guissan, 1998). Hides are used to make dresses for folklore ceremonies (Cornevin, 1973).
Africa | Tamberma initiates.  Northern Benin | ©Michel Renaudeau
Tamberma initiates. Northern Benin | ©Michel Renaudeau

The Batammariba have a special breed of cattle known as Somba breed. The Somba, typical of the tropical subhumid area, is a shorthorn derived from Bos taurus brachyceros, within which it belongs to the Savanna type (not the dwarf Lagoon type) (Meyer, 1998). It is thought to be the mother of the locally adapted cattle breeds in the Gulf of Guinea (Adoméfa et al., 2002).

                         Somba cattle

 The Somba is classified among hardy, trypanotolerant West African cattle. (Morkramer and Dékpo, 1984). The Somba varies from 0.90 up to 1 metre at shoulder height; adult weight is 172 ± 13 kg. It usually has a black-and-white coat, although some are entirely black, red, or red-and white (Adanléhoussi et al., 2003).

Mixed farming
Crops grown are: sorghum, groundnuts, fonio (Digitaria exilis), millet and more recently, maize. Thirty-four
percent of farmers use some form of crop residues as cattle feed (Adoméfa et al., 2002 and N’Poh and
N’Guissan, 1998).
P1120983
Manure is collected as fertilizer. Crops generate 16 000 CFA (32 US$) per farm per year, while cattle, which used to be capital savings, generate 40 000 CFA (80 US$) (Adoméfa et al., 2002). Livestock are clearly the farmer’s main source of income.
Bata1

Division of labour
In terms of pastoral economy, Tamberma men look after cattle whilst women tend goats and poultry.
The size of the Somba cow matches the castle where it is kept. A change in size would require a readjustment in terms of housing (N’Poh and N’Guissan, 1998). For dowries and ritual sacrifice, only the Somba breed of cattle is used. A Tamberma, on reaching a certain age, sacrifices a bull to his ancestors (N’Poh and N’Guissan, 1998).

Batammariba man and a woman

In farming, men weed the land and do most of the planting with little support from women. Women also perform almost all the household chores with their children.

                        Tamberma (Batammariba) Family

Religion
 Tamberma people hold strongly to the traditional African religion and the traditional African life. Like all Gurma group, Tamberma people worship the earth god.

                                        Tamberma shrine. Yves Regaldi

Their traditional worship is seen in their architecture which is characterized by castle-like, adobe dwellings that are one of the more astonishing examples of African architecture.

Batammariba old man smoking pipe at Walengo village,northern Togo. alan miller

Ancestral shrines (liboloni) with a phallic shape spiritually protect the triangular entrance of each home. Though Tamberma began to build their  fortress-like houses in the 18th century to protect themselves from the slave raids of the marauding Dahomey warriors, but they also have the belief that their shrines and belief in ancestors protected them from their enemies raids.

                               Batammariba earth priest. Yves Regaldi


                         Batammariba people at Wartema village,Tamberma Valley,northern Togo. alan miller
Tibenti Rituals
Tamberma people engage in elaborate funeral performances called "Tibenti" (The dance of drums) to honor their deceased male and female elders

                                                Batammariba priest

. In Tamberma culture when a person dies they say "Onitiloua" (The Person Sleeps.) The Tibenti rituals is climaxed by "turning over" (bita) ceremony on the house entrance roof.
Read further here:Tamberma-funeral-performances

                    Batammariba woman with her child

Lifoni Rituals
When a man dies,you do Lifoni [men's initiation] to him again? that which he did before he died. And when he brings out a child, the child will know that. If you do not do this, when he dies,the child will refuse[to be initiated]... the child will die.

Batammariba woman

 As are inforcement of this idea, several Tamberma elders have  suggested that the funeral play as a whole is structured around the men's and women's initiation cycle.This is defined by the rituals and ordering of the various funeral sequences.

As one priest explained,"Dressing the house with funeral cloths is like dressing the novices at Lifoni"(men's initiation).In the final public rites of initiation, rich cloths are draped over the shoulders of the male and female novices  (like those draped over the  upper stories of the funeral house), cowries are hung around their  necks and waists (like those placed around the  portal), and horned headdresses are placed  on their heads (paralleling the earthen horns on the center of  the entrance roof).
Africa | Somba man standing outside of his house (Tata Somba). Benin | ©Anthony Pappone
Somba man standing outside of his house (Tata Somba). Benin | ©Anthony Pappone

Through symbolicaction, the house is thus reinitiated to represent and nurture its  new youth (future offspring). Read further:Tamberma-funeral-performances

                                 
   Koutammakou, the land of the Batammariba
The name which they chose to call themselves, Batammaliba, a term meaning the 'people who are the real builders of earth.' Each building is constructed by a single architect-builder (otammaii) who 'signs' his work on the foundation with a special symbol.

A group of community master architects meets for the foundation laying and approves each design Batammariba residences each of which shelters a single, generally nuclear family, consist of two-storey earthen units which share similar formal attributes

. A west-facing door leads through a small entryway containing several grain mortars to a large, sombre ground-floor area called the 'cattle room where domestic animals and fowl are housed at night. Positioned in this chamber as v\ell are the altars of key male ancestors and a platform bed for the senior man of the house.

A raised kitchen is situated adjacent to the cattle room and serves as the primary means of access to the terrace Also on the terrace level are positioned a sleeping room used by the senior woman of the house and her young children. An auxiliary sleeping room and various crop drying and storage areas are found on this level as well.

 At the centre of the terrace is a ritual hole covered by a flat circular stone, the latter being used as a dining table for the family evening meal eventually the stone is taken to the cemetery to be used as a tombstone two clay granaries project from the front corners of each structure. The southwestern granary contains crops identified with men, the southeastern granary houses the women's crops terrace level drainage pipes carry potentially damaging rainwater away from the structure.


Key features of the house complement human anatomical parts as evidenced in language use, visual attributes, and actions directed toward the house in contexts of everyday and ritual use. Among the more salient of these anatomical parallels are the doorway-mouth, window-eyes, granary-stomach, moi tar-teeth side drainage pipe-penis, sleeping room-vagina, and back drainage pipe-anus. The earthen core of each building in turn recalls human flesh, the incised surface plaster complements local skin cichatrization patterns.

 When a senior resident of the house dies, the structure is draped with cloths to suggest a youth at the time of his initiation In addition to suggesting human physical features, each house also incorporates mound form altars to shelter the soul