Koutammakou

Koutammakou, the Land of the Batammariba (French: Koutammakou, le pays des Batammariba) is a cultural landscape designated in 2004 and expanded in 2023 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site at the border between northern Togo and Benin. The area features traditional mud tower-houses which remain the preferred style of living. The traditional mud houses are known as a national symbol of Togo. Many of the mud houses have two floors and some of them have flat roofs. In 2008, to complete the inscription of the site to World Heritage, the Department of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) of UNESCO, headed by Rieks Smeets, set up the "Safeguarding of the Cultural Intangible Heritage of Batammariba" from the 2003 Convention. The goal was to promote sustainability in Intergenerational transmission and preservation of skills and knowledge in all the essential areas of their culture, such as the manufacture of everyday and ceremonial objects, traditional healing and useful plants, takyentas construction, dance, music, archery, oral traditions, promotion of tourism respecting local traditions, mapping sacred areas, accumulation of data on the intangible cultural heritage and creation of access to it, recordings, films and photos. This program was coordinated by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Primary Education of Togo, led by minister Angèle Dola Akofa Aguigah. Dominique Sewane, whose groundwork and her research and publications on the Batammaribas’ ceremonial life, had an important role in the designation. From 19 to 24 October 2018, UNESCO organized an emergency mission to assess the damage caused by the August 2018 rains in Koutammakou on habitat and intangible heritage. The report was prepared by three international experts: Ishanlosen Odiaua, Dominique Sewane and Franck Ogou.