Trevor Hugh James Marchand. The Masons of Djenné. Bloomington:
Indiana University Press, 2009. xvi + 352 pp. $75.00 (cloth),
ISBN 978-0-253-31368-3; $29.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-253-22072-1.
Susan Vogel. The Future of Mud: A Tale of Houses and Lives in
Djenne. Video. Brooklyn: Icarus Films, 2007. Presented by the
Musée National du Mali. Reviewed by Elisabeth den Otter
Published on H-AfrArts (November, 2009) Commissioned by Jean M.
Borgatti Building Mud Houses in Djenné (Mali): An Anthropologist
as Apprentice Djenné, a town on the Bani River in central Mali,
is famous for its mud architecture, and is a UNESCO World
Heritage site. It is a favorite town for tourists, because of
its mosque, the beautiful traditional mud buildings, and the
Monday market. Trevor Marchand, an architect as well as an
anthropologist, worked for two winters (2001 and 2002) as an
apprentice with established masons, went back every year after
that, and co-produced a documentary film in 2005. Marchand
cooperated with Dutch projects, the fir