“Mud Masons of Mali,” currently on display in the Focus Gallery of the African Voices hall at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, is an exhibition by and about the masons of Djenné, a city on the banks of the Bani River in Mali. Djenne is a UNESCO World Heritage Site where ancient African traditions of building with mud are still practiced today.
The exhibition opens with a brief wall text explaining its purpose. Next to it are portraits and brief biographies of five of the masons currently working in Djenne, who were interviewed and filmed for the project. The men are members of a guild, or barey ton, that controls the art of building in Djenné to this day. They all belong to the Boso people, the group that founded the city eight centuries ago. Four are master masons, one is an apprentice/college student....