Koutammakou

Koutammakou, the land of the Batammariba, is currently the only UNESCO World Heritage Site in Togo. If you are interested in local culture and ethnicities, visiting Koutammakou should be on your Togo travel itinerary. The site can be easily reached as a day trip from Kara via Kandé, which is a 2.5-hour drive one way. This day trip was the highlight of my Togo road trip itinerary. I left Kara at around 8:30 AM and arrived at the entrance at 10:00 AM. There is a small fee that must be paid, and you must be accompanied by a local guide. It is important to respect the local Tamberma people and their traditional way of life.

Tata or Takienta houses are mud and straw castles with a ground floor for livestock, a kitchen on the "middle" floor, and sleeping quarters on the roof. With one entrance and Voodoo deities protecting it, the homes are easily defendable. The Batammariba people live in small villages grouped around a water source and fertile land, and they maintain their long-standing traditions while living in harmony with nature.

For me, this was the highlight in Togo.I really enjoyed my visit and see the locals. When I left the were just brewing their local "beer"which I had the option to taste. If you have a overreacting stomach I would refrain from trying.

It's a site quite far away and maybe on many WHS visitors "to see list". The new Togo TWHS list is also …

I lived in this area for two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer. It is truly an amazing people and an amazing cultural experience. The architecture is phenomenal and a prideful part of their lives. There is not a lot of infrastructure develped for tourists. So visitors need to be aware of that and accomodating. Organization for toursits can also be confusing as there is currently no good set up of finding a guide, renting a car, lodging, etc. Try and make sure who you are paying is really a local person and be respectful of the community. There have been some negative effects of tourism already. Children chase cars and people beg for gifts. Don't give out gifts. But always ask before taking photographs and pay them if they ask for money or give them some other small gift.

Anyone interested in Ethnology, Architecture, Cultural landscapes or African culture generally should try to reach this site. It consists of an area of country in NE Togo and NW Benin which is inhabited by the Battamariba people (who were called Tamberma by the colonial administration – we were told this meant “Good Builders”). Their “fortified” mud-brick houses called “Tata” (or Takienta”) are remarkable both visibly and as an introduction to their entire way of life and to their (animist) beliefs (photo). Walking the hilly savannah between the “villages”, seeing the daily life and agriculture and going inside a few houses is a fine travel experience which we did in Jan 2007, covering villages in both Togo and Benin.

We reached the Togolese inscribed area of “Koutammakou” via a dirt road NE from Kande before crossing into Benin south of Boukombe. The areas we saw in both countries didn't seem to be as significantly on the international travel route as the Dogon country in Mali then was. However, visits to those Tata near to the road, which were all we saw in Togo, were somewhat more “touristy” than I had hoped, with displays of handicrafts for sale and calls for “cadeaux” from hordes of children. Across the Benin border the area (which was not then included in the UNESCO site) proved in our experience, more fruitful for exploration and interaction with the Battamariba as we were able to partake in a full day's walk reasonably well away from the roads. …