Somba Tribe

Somba Family

Northern Benin 2001 A Somba family stands in their courtyard.

The Somba are known for their castle-like homes. Each home is protected by a wall. It isn’t a separate wall. The outer wall forms part of the living area itself. Inside the courtyard are some storage buildings such as the round hut on the left in the photo.  Grain is stored here. The way you enter the hut is to climb a ladder and lift the thatched top off, then pour the grain in. I have a photo of that somewhere and one day I’ll put it on the blog.

Do you notice a collection of objects in the lower right corner, right near the little girl in the pink dress? Well, that is the fetish. If these people were in Italy, they’d have a statue of St. Anthony or the Blessed Virgin there. The Somba are animists and they have their religious objects as well. I can’t remember exactly what they had, but often it is a figure carved from wood. The figure might have some cowrie shells attached to it.

We were told that the Africans easily accept another religion’s customs or ideas. They are eager to get help from whatever source might bestow it. So, a family that is Muslim, might have a fetish in their home. Or they might believe that fetishes have power, and would not offend the fetish by breaking a taboo.

 The man in the center of the photo might seem to be the grandfather, but most likely he is the father of those young people. He might have more than one wife. The women don’t mind as it means that they share the work.

I met a family in Morocco where there were several wives in the family. Each day the chores rotated so that one day would be cooking day and the next would be laundry and the next would be milking the goat, etc. They said they liked the idea because each day was different and got a whole day off once a week!

The man wears a short, full, garment called a golof. Usually, Somba men wear a pair of knee-length shorts that match, but he is proud of his gold-colored jeans. The golof is made of many strips of woven cotton about 3 inches wide. The market is full of men running sewing machines making golofs. I bought one. It’s heavy and really, it looks ridiculous when I put it on.

On a photographic note, you can see the strong shadows on all the faces. Those shadows ruin your photos, there is never any detail in them. When you photograph dark skin in harsh sun, this is what happens. You need to use fill flash or ask them to go to an area with open shade.