Public Art and Community Co-Creation: Revitalizing Cultural Heritage with the Kassena Community
By Daniella Angulo
Based in the Tiébélé village of Burkina Faso in West Africa, the Kassena community is famous for their painted houses tradition. By decorating their houses with culturally-rich symbols, stories, a sense of protection and generations of heritage are kept alive and passed on. And since Tiébélé was recently named one of Burkina Faso’s four UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Kassena hope to use this distinction to raise public cultural awareness, strengthen preservation efforts, and benefit their community through projects and economic activities centered around their heritage.
We recently chatted with featured artist Alexandre Keto, who is beginning collaborative work with Kassena locals to revitalize their tradition of painting houses. Keto’s work is a fantastic example of community co-creation. Public art can be used to bring public attention to so many issues and with Tiébélé’s ancestral cultural heritage at risk for many reasons, the collaboration between Keto and the Kassena community hopes to reinvigorate this practice for future generations.
Abatidan Casimir Nassara is the president of the Dizenidani Association, a Tiébélé-based non-profit that aims to promote Kassena education, culture, environmental practices and sport. As his family is part of Tiébélé’s Royal Court, Casimir is a prince by birth. He works as a community conservator who is responsible for the protection and promotion of Kassena culture.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
As someone who holds great responsibility in your community, what is unique about Tiébélé in your eyes?
I am a cultural actor within this community, which has seen me from birth through growing up.
For me, Tiébélé is unique, first and foremost, because of its hospitality and solidarity with others. Tiébélé is especially significant to me through its architecture, which is unique and exceptional in the world. Finally, Tiébélé is unique in my eyes because of its culture, which is so rich in moral, artistic, and social values.
Can you describe the tradition of painting homes and its significance?
The tradition of painting on houses is passed down from generation to generation and is an art specifically practiced by women. These paintings have a dual significance. First, they play a protective role for the houses against rain and wind. But beyond this protective aspect, they contain cultural and historical knowledge. A whole school of learning is taught through them. The women who create these paintings express themselves through the symbols and reliefs they draw. In these paintings, three colors are used: red, black, and white.
Red symbolizes the power of the Kassena chiefdom and the women's passion for work. Black is used to represent mourning, which is an inevitable stage in the life of the community. Finally, the color white symbolizes the purity and cleanliness of Kassena women. The various symbols thus tell the story and way of life of the Kassena community. I will take just one symbol that you can see on the houses: the triangle. This symbol represents the pieces of a broken calabash, and it reminds us of the importance of this kitchen utensil for the Kassena. When it breaks during use, it is seen as a sign of misfortune.
Kassena women with one of their creations. Photo Credit
In your point of view, what factors are putting this tradition at risk?
Modernism, rapid urbanization, and climate change are the primary threats to this tradition. Climate change especially has an impact on the Kassena mural paintings because it affects the natural materials used for the decorations. For example, the use of chemical products on arable land greatly degrades it. Most of the materials used come from the earth. Additionally, there is soil erosion, storms that threaten the decorations during each rainy season, etc.
The néré tree is also critical to the tradition, and it’s disappearing due to ongoing deforestation. The pods of this tree are used in the paintings as a varnish to protect the different colors from rainwater and strong winds. If these factors continue, the loss of this tradition would lead to social and cultural imbalance.
When I spoke with Keto, he had just returned from Burkina Faso, where he began a collaborative project teaching community members to make doors for their houses. Local women then decorated these doors according to custom, adding new elements to their ancestral tradition. As an outsider coming in to work with the Kassena, I was interested to know what this experience was like from their perspective.
What was it like for the community to work with Keto? How did people initially react, and how did these reactions change over time?
These painted houses in the Royal Court of Tiébélé are visited by several hundred people each year. At first, people thought Keto was just another white tourist coming to visit the royal court and then leave. But over time, the community understood that he was one of them. They saw that beyond his visit, he could also contribute to what our women were already doing, creating artistic fusion.
One of my cousins lives a little farther from the Royal Court. Every day, he would come to see what Keto’s work had produced. And one day, he finally said, “But your guy Keto, he’s good!” All this to say that in the end, Alexandre was seen as someone who 'brings soil to the soil' – adding value to something that is already good, for even more creation.
What were the benefits of having Keto come to the community?
An artistic connection was established between Keto and the women of Tiébélé specifically, and the community in general. Collaborative projects are being considered, including travel projects for cultural and artistic exchanges with the women of Tiébélé. A training workshop for the youth of Tiébélé is also planned for March 2025. Through his connections and personal initiatives, Keto also wants to help with the Dora competition. This competition helps train young schoolgirls in the art of decorating houses and takes place every year in March. 2025 will be its 10th edition. So, these are some of the benefits of Keto’s visit to Tiébélé. We hope to achieve a fruitful collaboration for a partnership that is artistically, socially, and economically beneficial for the communities of both Brazil and Burkina Faso.
A Kassena woman at the Dora competition. Photo Credit
Thank you to Casimir for sharing more about the Kassena community! We look forward to keeping up with this tradition’s revitalization efforts. In a quickly changing world, finding new ways to promote cultural heritage is key. We believe public art is an inclusive, creative way of doing so.