Its awesome how the traditional African huts (houses) are made. Indeed the walls are usually made of clay or mud, but in most cases building material varies with different tribal communities. I've had the privileged to visit a few different ones in Kenya.
The standard African rural house is structured with sticks and poles, plastered with mud or clay and the roofs are thatched with a special kind of grass that is done so well its is leak proof. In most communities, to get a superb finish on the walls, it is crusted with cow dung mixed with clay.
But other communities like the Maasai of East Africa make it loaf shaped, built with closely woven sticks and sealed with grass and leaves. The structure is then plastered with fresh cow-dung and cow urine mixed with clay, creating a hard cement-like shell.
At the Swahili coast, they build with the usual traditional clay wall and roof with what they call 'makuti', which is basically palm leaves.
The first thing as you enter a rural African house, you cant help but to notice the smell of smoked earth, and your mind immediately registers that you have left the city very far behind. Trust me! Its a good feeling.
The houses are usually not that big, they would rather build many little houses in the same compound than build one big house for the family. The kitchen is usually a roughed up hut structure at the back which in most cases will act as the cattle kraal as well.
The houses have small holes on the sides for windows but more recently the are substituting this with small wooden windows. Also most of the thatch roofing is being overtaken by iron sheet roofing, which to me is not all that great as it doesn't keep the house cool like the grass does in the heat of the African day.
In all, I fancy the African huts, I see it as a very innovative thing.
