Roofing in Benin

Benin stretches from lagoons and a humid coast on the Gulf of Guinea to the savanna and Atakora hills of the north. Its traditional roofs were thatch of straw, grass or palm over earth walls, with the earthen tower-houses of the Batammariba in the north-west. Today the great majority of homes are roofed with corrugated metal sheet, known in French as tôle.

Climate and hazards

The south has two rainy seasons and high humidity; the north has a single rainy season and harmattan dust. Fire and wind are serious risks for thatched roofs: the Royal Palaces of Abomey were damaged by a tornado on 15 March 1984 and by a bushfire on 21 January 2009 that destroyed many buildings.

Roofing history

The kingdom of Dahomey, founded in 1625, built its capital at Abomey, where twelve successive kings added palaces until 1900. The palaces were built of laterite earth, water, timber and straw, with walls averaging about 0.5 m (20 in) thick, and have roofs of straw and sheet metal. In 1892-1894 King Béhanzin ordered the city and palaces burned during the French conquest.

In the north-west, the Batammariba settled the Koutammakou area, shared with Togo, in the 17th or 18th century.

Traditional and vernacular roofs

• Palace roofs at Abomey: straw thatch over earth walls and timber of palm, bamboo, iroko or mahogany (see Royal Palaces of Abomey).
• Takienta of the Atakora: earthen tower-houses with livestock below and granaries on the roof terrace; about 1,400 are still inhabited on the Beninese side (see Batammariba takienta).
• Thatch: straw, grass and palm-leaf thatch remains on a minority of rural homes.

Roofing today

In the unweighted 2014 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey sample (about 14,100 households), roofs were recorded as:

Main roof material	Share of sampled households
Metal sheet (tôles)	81.3%
Thatch, palm leaf or straw	7.8%
Cement	5.3%
Tiles	2.6%
Palm or bamboo	0.7%
Grass	0.4%
Wood planks	0.4%

Tiles and concrete together account for under a tenth of homes in the survey sample.

Codes, standards and regulation

Heritage roofs are protected through World Heritage management; at Abomey, a buffer zone has been protected by urban-planning rules since 2006, and Law No. 2007-20 adds legal protection for cultural heritage.

Notable roofs

• Royal Palaces of Abomey: ten palaces on 47 ha (116 acres), World Heritage site since 1985, on the List in Danger from 1985 to 2007.
• Koutammakou (Beninese extension, 2023): Batammariba tower-houses.

Local roofing terms

• tôle (French): metal roof sheet.
• paille (French): straw thatch.

Sources and gaps

Survey figures are unweighted sample counts. Detailed information on southern vernacular house types (for example lagoon stilt villages), codes and industry: published information is limited.