Taneka Beri
The International Carlo Scarpa Prize for Gardens 2011
edited by Domenico Luciani and Patrizia Boschiero, with Marco Aime
cover price 20 euros
Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche-Antiga Edizioni
Treviso 2011
192 pages
217 illustrations in colour and 19 black and white
published only in Italian and French, ISBN 978-88-88997-63-6
The focus of attention in 2011 for the twenty-second cultural campaign surrounding the International Carlo Scarpa Prize for Gardens is a village in sub-Saharan West Africa: the place, its form and its life, the Tangba community that is responsible for it, its heritage of ideas and things, its sense of time and space, its safeguard of memory, its transmission of knowledge, of arts and trades, its stewardship of common property and the care devoted to looking after the home, the concept of nature and the figures embodying the sacred.
The village is in north-western Benin, in the Taneka hills, southern offshoots of the Atakora massif, a crucial nexus in the history of the peoples of the region and the watershed between the basins of the Volta, the Niger and the Ouémé, the river that runs from north to south through the country before emptying into the Gulf of Guinea. It is part of a group of villages whose origins date back to the xviii century, when they constituted a refuge from slave raiders from the south; its name oscillates between the historical Seseirhà (“superimposed houses”), and the more recent Taneka Beri (“great taneka”). It is divided into four parts called Satyekà, Tyaklerò, Galorhà and Pendolou, each of which comprises many nuclei inhabited by extended families.
An Italian anthropologist, Marco Aime, recently led an experimental incursion of a group of European landscape experts into this mundus alter in an attempt to gather evidence and clues to its interpretation. The tools we inevitably and consciously brought to the task were those through which we filter our knowledge and perceptions of our own world but our work is underpinned by a commitment to take full account of the questions that such a distant microcosm continues to pose to our culture and our mentality.
This dossier brings together studies made by the anthropologist over almost twenty years of close acquaintance with the area and its people, together with observations developed by the philosopher, the philologist, the landscape expert and the architect after the intense and absorbing experience of the short visit; the result brings wide-ranging views and creative dialogue. As well as cartographic and bibliographic apparatus and materials providing geographical and historical context the dossier contains a short anthology of crucial xx century writings on the issue of “us/others” and on the historical roots of racism.
The volume (published in two editions, Italian and French) investigates the present condition of a community and a place that continue to draw life-sustaining strength from their land and their history, and invites serious thought about their future propects.
Contents
International Carlo Scarpa Prize for Gardens 1990-2011/Prix International Carlo Scarpa pour le Jardin, 1990-2011, 4
Regulations and Jury/Règlement du prix et Jury, 5
Taneka Beri. Jury Report/Motivation du jury, 7
(in Italian, French and English)
Marco Aime, Tangba. Dagli antenati ai capi/Des ancêtres aux chefs [Tangba. From ancestors to community leaders], 23
Marco Aime, I villaggi sulla collina/Les villages sur la colline [The hill villages], 40
Atlantino/Un petit atlas [The geographical and historical context], 64-102
Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch, Africa a sud del Sahara/Afrique au sud du Sahara [Sub-Saharan Africa], 64
Bianca Triaca, Benin. Il paese e la sua storia/Bénin. Le pays et son histoire [Benin. The country and its history], 81
Jérôme C. Alladayè, I popoli e le istituzioni politico-amministrative durante il periodo precoloniale/Les peuples et les institutions politico-administratives durant la période précoloniale [The peoples and the political and administrative institutions during the pre-colonial period], 82
Jérôme C. Alladayè, L’organizzazione del Dahomey in epoca coloniale/L’organisation du Dahomey à l’époque coloniale [The organization of Dahomey in the colonial period], 87
Bianca Triaca, Atakora/Atacora, 90
Roger N’Tia, Geopolitica dell’Atakora precoloniale. La colonizzazione e le sue conseguenze/Géopolitique de l’Atacora précolonial. La colonisation et ses conséquences [The geopolitics of pre-colonial Atakora. Colonization and its consequences], 90
Henry Hubert, Il massiccio dell’Atakora e la valle del Niger/Le massif de l’Atacora et la vallée du Niger (1908), [The Atakora massif and the Niger valley], 95
Il viaggio e i sopraluoghi/Le voyage et les visites [The study tour and site visits]
Nei villaggi taneka dell’Atakora/Dans les villages taneka de l’Atakora [In the Taneka villages of the Atakora region], 103
Marco Tamaro, Un’incursione-laboratorio/Une incursion-laboratoire [A workshop-incursion], 104
Marco Aime, Tracce, mappe, disegni/Traces, cartes, dessins [Traces, maps, drawings], 106
Massimo Venturi Ferriolo, Taneka Beri, 110
Luigi Latini, Esplorazione di un luogo, ricerca di una misura paesaggistica/Exploration d’un lieu, recherche d’une mesure du paysage [Exploration of a place, the search for a landscape dimension], 114
Hervé Brunon, Il radicamento topografico di un villaggio giardino/L’enracinement topographique d’un village-jardin [The topographical roots of a garden village], 116
Hervé Brunon, Contornare il profilo di Taneka Beri/Arpenter les contours de Taneka Beri[Outlining Taneka Beri], 122
Marco Aime, Margherita Azzi Visentini, Luigi Latini, Monique Mosser, Simonetta Zanon, Tappe di una visita al quartiere di Satyekà/Étapes d’une visite au quartier de Satyekà [Stages in a visit to the Satyekà district], 126
Patrizia Boschiero, Tom Simons, Fe-Tiniha, un nucleo abitativo nel quartiere di Pendolou/Un noyau d’habitation dans le quartier de Pendolou [Fe-Tiniha, a residential nucleus in the district of Pendolou], 134
Acqua e terra/Eau et terre [Water and land], 144
Orou Gani, “Varun” o la grotta venerata dei monti “Tanika-Koko Dör”/“Varun” ou la grotte vénérée des monts “Tanika-Koko Dör” (1963), [“Varun” or the sacred cave in the “Tanika-Koko Dör” mountains], 148
Momenti cruciali della storia delle idee sugli africani e, in generale, sugli “altri”/Moments cruciaux de l’histoire des idées sur les africains et, en général, sur les “autres” [Key moments in the history of ideas about Africans and, in general, about “others”]
H.M. Dubois, Assimilazione o adattamento?/Assimilation ou adaptation? (1929), [Assimilation or adaptation?], 149
Bronisław Malinowski, Etnologia pratica/Ethnologie pratique (1929), [Practical ethnology], 151
Claude Lévi-Strauss, Race et Histoire (1952), [Race and history], 153
Karl Polanyi, La sfida della tratta degli schiavi/Le défi de la traite des esclaves (1966), [The challenge of the slave trade], 160
Ricerche e apparati/Recherches et apparats [Research and cartographic/bibliographic apparatus]
Massimo Rossi, Cartografie ed esplorazioni, dal Dahomey al Benin/Cartographies et explorations, du Dahomey au Bénin [Cartography and explorations, from Dahomey to Benin], 167
Cartografia utilizzata/Cartographie utilisée [Cartography adopted], 173
Bibliografia consultata/Bibliographie consultée [Bibliography consulted], 175
Glossario di riferimento/Glossaire de référence [Reference glossary], 186
Elenco delle illustrazioni/Liste des illustrations [List of illustrations], 188
Premio Internazionale Carlo Scarpa per il Giardino 2011/ Prix International Carlo Scarpa pour le Jardin 2011 [International Carlo Scarpa Prize for Gardens 2011], 190
