Roofing in Mali

Mali is the heartland of Sudano-Sahelian earth architecture. For more than a thousand years, houses, mosques and granaries along the Niger River and on the Bandiagara plateau have been roofed with earth laid over timber, or with tapering thatch on granaries. These roofs are still in use, but new houses in towns are increasingly built with cement blocks, metal sheet and concrete slabs.

Climate and hazards

Most of Mali is Sahelian or Saharan: very hot, with a long dry season and a short rainy season. The rains are infrequent but can be violent, and they are the main enemy of earth roofs, eroding surfaces and gullying walls. UNESCO lists desertification, advancing sand, torrential rains and flooding among the threats to Mali's earthen heritage sites. Large daily temperature swings favour heavy, thermally massive roofs.

Roofing history

Sun-dried mud brick was already used at Jenné-Jeno, the ancient city near Djenné, in the second half of the first millennium AD. The Great Mosque of Djenné was first built between about 1200 and 1300, received additions in the 1830s and was completely rebuilt in 1906-1907. In Timbuktu, the Sankore mosque dates from the 14th century and Sidi Yahia from around 1400; Djingareyber, linked to the emperor Kankan Moussa (Mansa Musa), was rebuilt and enlarged in 1570-1583. In Gao, the Tomb of Askia was built in 1495 by Askia Mohamed of the Songhai Empire.

During the colonial period and since independence in 1960, cement, fired brick, metal doors and metal-sheet roofs entered the building culture. UNESCO identifies these materials as pressures on the historic towns.

Traditional and vernacular roofs

• Flat earth roofs (Sudano-Sahelian): Walls of sun-dried mud brick (ferey) and earth plaster (banco) carry timber joists, often palm, covered with sticks or mats and thick layers of earth. Mudbrick town houses are usually two storeys with flat roofs around a central courtyard and must be replastered at least every two years. See Sahelian earthen roofs and Djenné earthen architecture.
• Mosque roofs: In Djenné's Great Mosque the earth roof on rodier palm timber is pierced by vents with removable fired-clay caps, and ceramic spouts throw rain clear of the walls. Projecting timbers (toron) act as permanent scaffolding for annual replastering.
• Dogon granaries: Square earth granaries with thatched roofs tapering to a point, and the low branch-roofed toguna meeting shelter (see Dogon architecture).
• The Tomb of Askia: a 17 m (56 ft) earth pyramid with two flat-roofed mosque buildings, an open assembly space and permanent scaffolding of hasu wood (Maerua crassifolia).

Roofing today

Mali is one of the few countries in the region where earth is still the most common roof. In the unweighted 2015 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey sample (about 11,800 households), the leading categories were:

Main roof material	Share of sampled households
Banco (earth) on timber	42.7%
Metal sheet	33.8%
Cement	10.8%
Grass or straw	4.5%
Thatch or palm leaf	2.2%
Mat	1.6%
Tiles	1.1%

Earth roofs remain in use in villages and historic towns such as Djenné, where nearly 2,000 traditional earth houses survive, while cement, fired brick and metal-sheet roofs spread in new building. The 2018 and 2023-24 Demographic and Health Surveys use similar categories, including earth clods (earth roofs) and metal.

Contemporary architects have looked for ways to cool metal and concrete buildings. The Falatow Jigiyaso orphanage in Bamako (2012) added a second roof above its blocks to cut heat, with concrete-block walls filled with banco earth. Since 2000 the association La Voûte Nubienne has trained masons in Mali to build earth-brick Nubian vaults that need no timber or metal.

Codes, standards and regulation

Historic towns are protected through UNESCO site management and national heritage listing; the Tomb of Askia, for example, was placed on Mali's national heritage list in 2003, and a 2002-2007 conservation plan was prepared with the earth-architecture research centre CRAterre-ENSAG.

Notable roofs

• Great Mosque of Djenné (rebuilt 1906-1907): often described as the largest mud-brick building in the world, replastered each year in a community festival.
• Djingareyber, Sankore and Sidi Yahia mosques, Timbuktu.
• Tomb of Askia, Gao (1495).
• Dogon villages of the Bandiagara escarpment: 289 villages with thatched granaries and toguna shelters.

Local roofing terms

• banco: wet earth used for bricks and plaster.
• ferey: sun-dried mud brick (Djenné).
• toron: projecting timbers used as scaffolding.
• toguna: Dogon men's shelter with a low branch roof.
• hasu: Maerua crassifolia timber used for scaffolding at the Tomb of Askia.

Sources and gaps

Heritage sites are well documented. Roof shares are unweighted MICS 2015 sample counts rather than official estimates; published information on codes and industry is limited.