How did African builders use earth and clay to construct homes?

Across Africa, earth and clay are fundamental building resources, utilized in diverse ways depending on regional materials and environmental factors. Builders often employ these materials to create durable, functional, and aesthetically significant homes through several distinct techniques:1

• Coil and Lift Construction: In savanna and semidesert regions where wood is scarce, builders often use a coil pottery technique. Mud is laid spirally in "lifts" of approximately half a meter, allowing each layer to dry before the next is added.2
• Ramming and Infilling: In forest regions, houses were traditionally constructed using pole frames with mud infilling. Modern rural dwellings may use "swish," or pisé de terre, which involves ramming earth into wooden formwork in successive lifts. Additionally, some walls are created by packing mud into a ring of posts or wattle-and-daub basket weaves.32
• Plastering and Finishing: Earthen surfaces, including floors and walls, are typically plastered smooth and dried until they reach a rocklike hardness. These surfaces are frequently decorated with colored clays or sculpted with intricate ancestral motifs.2
• Structural Integration: Earth is also used for specialized structures, such as earth-sheltered or partly sunken dwellings found in parts of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Tanzania.1