Marchand's Study of Mud City Masons Wins Book Award
15 October 2010
The Masons of Djenné, a book by Professor of Social Anthropology Trevor Marchand, has won the Elliott P. Skinner Book Award of the Association for Africanist Anthropology.
The book details Marchand's research into the masons of Djenné, an island town in the Inland Niger Delta region of Mali that was settled more than two thousands year ago.
Djenné is considered to have the finest examples of traditional mud buildings in the world. Its striking constructions, which include elegant merchant houses and a mosque believed to be the world's largest mud building, have led to its recognition as a UNESECO World Heritage site.
To study the masons, Marchand signed on as a builder's apprentice. His experiences are recounted in the book, which contains a detailed exploration of "the technical, social, and magical processes" involved in making the buildings.
SOAS has acquired five poster-size prints from an exhibition of photos Marchand took as part of his research. These have been hung on the first floor of College Buildings, next to Lift G.
The photos are from Marchand's Djenné: African City of Mud exhibition at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in London, held from March to May of this year and partly sponsored by SOAS. The prints to be displayed at SOAS include different images of the Great Mosque, a view of rooftop terraces and a Djenné mason at work. All proceeds from the exhibition and the sale of the prints support Oxfam projects in Mali.
Critical praise for the Masons of Djenné
"An elegantly written and important anthropological study of indigenous knowledge, building practices and social relationships among contemporary Djenné masons in Mali." —Mary Jo Arnoldi, Smithsonian Institution
"Here is a book that puts the work back into fieldwork with the dirt left under the fingernails. . . . Over and above the book's considerable substantive and theoretical strengths, the unusually accessible exposition of this intercultural dynamic will make it well worth teaching." —Allen F. Roberts, UCLA, African Studies Review, Vol.53.1 April
For further information, contact:
William Friar, Communications Officer, tel. 020 7898 4135, w.friar@soas.ac.uk
