Identifier: fromcongotonige01adol (find matches)
Title: From the Congo to the Niger and the Nile : an account of The German Central African expedition of 1910-1911
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors: Adolf Friedrich, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, 1873-1969 Deutsche Zentral-Afrika-expedition, 1910-1911
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Publisher: London : Duckworth
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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[Content from pages 109-110 about this image (image 119 in the book):] "We reached Lere on the 9th of June. (Illus. 113.) The castle-like houses built by the Mundangs are real works of art. (Illus. 117.) Lere is unique as regards both the architecture and the distribution of its houses. Straight lines are the ruling principle, the walls being perpendicular and the roofs horizontal. The buildings are of mud, and the roofs are made of thick, interlaced sticks covered with mud. The inside is complicated, especially in the women's houses. There is a sitting-room, a bedroom, a kitchen, a dining-room, and an outhouse for storing wood and provisions. The whole forms a small labyrinth, the centre of which is pitch dark. The inner walls of the principal rooms are polished, which makes them look clean and neat. There is also in every case a circular granary, built like a tower.

The sultan Lamido Ganthiome's palace is a huge building. (Illus. 119.) It resembles a castle, and besides the sultan's house and that of his sons, contains stables, a reception room, and an entrance hall, as well as apartments for about a hundred wives. There are also within the building the usual tall, circular granaries (illus. 120), which are entered through a round hole in the top, just big enough to admit a man, and to which a ladder gives access. Inside they are divided by partitions, so that the different kinds of corn may be kept separate.

The Lamido possesses considerable authority, and takes a great interest in the cultivation of the fields. The French taught him how to grow cotton, and supplied him with seed."

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