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Building Technology of Mud Structures by the Ijaw people in the Niger Delta.

Southern Ijaw Local Government Area as a case study.

S.T Orumu1, B.E Yabefa

2

1.Department of Civil Engineering,

Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island.

2.Department of Civil Engineering,

University of Ibadan, Ibadan Nigeria.

Abstract

The comfort of man here on earth is enhanced by the construction of a residential home that is

well designed and efficiently constructed to exclude not only the adverse environmental factors

but should provide adequate light and ventilation. The house must have adequate strength,

stability and fire protection for the occupants. Nigerian traditional communities built their

houses to meet their social, cultural and religious needs. Building materials comprised mainly

mud, wood, stone, thatch, grass and other appropriate vegetable materials. This study was

carried out in some selected communities in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area to

investigate the building technology of mud structures by the Ijaw people in the Niger Delta,

using a combination focus group discussions and walk-through surveys. The result showed that,

the house building technology in the Ijaw land is easy and almost all the building materials are

easily obtainable from the locality. The walls are made of wood and mud, and the roof sheets are

either thatches or corrugated iron sheets (zinc).

Keywords: mud-house, ijaw, construction, thatches., bamboo, cane rope.

1. Introduction

The provision of shelter is an important

aspect of life no man can do without. The

major comfort of man here on earth is

enhanced by the construction of a residential

home where man derives his convenience.

To achieve this, buildings must be well

designed and efficiently constructed to

exclude not only the adverse environmental

factors such as weather, noise and heat but

should provide adequate light and

ventilation. In addition, adequate strength

and stability must be provided together with

adequate fire protection for the occupants,

contents and fabric of the building (Foster et

al, 2006). The construction of fantastic

structures is a major attribute of man that

distinguishes him from the beast. Over the

years, man has developed advanced

technologies for the construction of

comfortable shelters for man’s convenience.

A house is mans private resort that protects

him from the stress and problems outside.

Having the conception to build a house is

one of the major indications of one’s

maturity and responsibility.

In Nigeria, different tribes and cultures

across the country have developed different

building technologies traditionally since

from the days of old, for the construction of

houses that fits them. Before the

introduction of modern European

architecture and imported building

materials, Nigerian traditional communities

built their houses to meet their social,

cultural and religious needs. Building

materials comprised mainly mud, wood,

stone, thatch, grass and other appropriate

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International Journal of Advancements in Research & Technology, Volume 7, Issue 2, February-2018 ISSN 2278-7763 1

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vegetable materials (Online Nigeria, 2015).

The application of mud in construction of

shelter does not require much energy to

manufacture it unlike brick cement, steel,

concrete, etc. (Gokila et al 2015). Mud

house building uses only simple natural

materials. Mud house construction is durable

and can be easily recycled, and it also

provides air conditioning system which

provides cool air from the massive walls,

(Gokila et al 2015). But the advent of

technology in building construction with

more durable and aesthetic materials called

for the use of the imported building

materials such as cement, steel etc that is

conventionally known as the major

construction materials. Hence, most of the

young ones from the Ijaw origin are denied

of the knowledge of the indigenous building

practices of the Ijaw people, hence, left

homeless due to the high cost of the

conventional construction materials.

Therefore, this work aims to investigate and

create an exposition of the mud house

building technology by the Ijaw people in

the Niger Delta area of Nigeria.

2. The Study Area

The study area is Southern Ijaw Local

Government Area of Bayelsa State, Nigeria.

Its headquarters is in the town of Oporoma.

It is located on Latitude 4˚48'17"N and

Longitude 6˚04"E. The area has a coastline

of approximately 60km on the Bight of

Benin. It is the largest local government in

Nigeria. The people and their language are

known as Izon. (Oluyemi et al 2016).

Southern Ijaw has a land area of 2682 km2

approximated and a population of 319,413

persons (NPC Census, 2006) (NPCC 2016).

Southern Ijaw Local Government Area has a

riverine and estuarine setting. A lot of her

communities are often completely

surrounded by water, hence making these

communities inaccessible by road. Figure 1

presents a map of Bayelsa State of Nigeria,

showing Southern Ijaw Local Government

Area, which is the study area.

2.1 Physiographic Characteristics

The study area lies in the heaviest rainfall

area in Nigeria with heavy rainfall almost all

year round and a short dry season. The

area’s climate supports the cultivation of oil

palm, cocoa rice, banana, yam, cocoyam,

coconut, cassava, sugarcane etc. The amount

of rainfall is adequate for a year round crop

production. The vegetation of Southern Ijaw

is composed of ecological zones which

include coastal barrier Island forests,

mangrove forest, and fresh water swamp.

The difference with various soil units in the

area and they constitute part of the eco-

systems. (Oluyemi et al 2016).

2.2 Socio-Economic Activities

The socio-economic activities of the people

in Southern Ijaw may be considered under

three main headings namely, primary

occupations, secondary occupations and

tertiary occupations. The major traditional

primary occupations include fishing,

commerce and water transportation.

However, crude oil exportation by

multinational companies and the local crude

oil refining, have since become the major

sources of socio-economic activities in the

area. The area also has higher educational

institutions like the Niger Delta University

(NDU) in Amassoma and Federal

Polytechnic Ekowe, amongst others.

(Oluyemi et al 2016)

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Figure 1. Map of Bayelsa state showing southern Ijaw local government area (study area).

Source: Oluyemi et al (2016)

3. METHODOLOGY

The research was carried out by taking a

visit to some selected communities in

Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of

Bayelsa State, Nigeria. Some of the

communities visited are Ayama-Ijaw,

Oporoma, Korokorosei, Ikebiri, Olugbobiri,

Okpotuwari, Ogboinbiri. Focused group

discussions in line with (Burningham et al

2001, and Cronin, 2001). were carried out in

the communities to find out the building

technology of mud houses by the Ijaw

people. Also, a walk-through survey was

also conducted in line with (Feingold et al

2007) to see the technology and how mud

houses are built in the various communities

visited in the area.

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Mud houses are relatively easy and cheap to

build as almost all the building materials can

be obtained from a nearby forest or bush

except few that can be easily bought from

the market. The building materials required

for the construction of a mud house in the

traditional setting of the Ijaw land include,

wooden sticks, Indian bamboo or the raffia

palm bamboo, cane ropes, palm oil fuel,

(POF) or saw dusts, thatches or corrugated

iron roofing sheets (zinc), nails, river sand,

and mud. Almost 95 percent of the above

named materials are locally obtainable in

their environs.

The mud houses are constructed with mud

walls and thatch or zinc roofing sheets.

During construction, the walls for various

room spaces are marked out with a rope on

the ground and wooden poles or sticks are

pinned on the ground according to the

building plan at an interval of 250 to

300mm. The holes on the ground are

normally drilled with a locally made auger

(digger). Care must be taken to ensure that,

all the sticks that formed the vertical

member of the walls are of the same height

from the ground level, while the wooden

poles for the king posts are usually longer

than the others. Then, the roof is constructed

on top. A skeletal structure of the house is

created at this stage. The builder ensures that

the sticks or poles are of hard wood and

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pinned deep enough in the soil to prevent

collapse of the house.

The roof is normally constructed with either

thatches or corrugated iron roofing sheets

(zinc). The thatches are cheaper to get than

the zinc roofing sheets, because thatches are

locally produced from the leaflets of the

raffia palm tree. Hence, the corrugated iron

sheets (zinc) are used by people who are

more successful in the area. In a thatch roof,

the trusses were a combination of wooden

wall plate and ridge piece with either split

raffia palm bamboo or Indian bamboo for

the rafters. Split raffia palm bamboo or

Indian bamboo of appropriate sizes are used

to make the purlins which are fastened to the

rafters by cane ropes at suitable intervals to

correspond with the effective usable area of

the thatch roofing sheet that will prevent

leakage of the roof during the

rain.(Tamaraukuro et al 2016). The thatches

are placed on the roof, and are skillfully

fastened to the purlins with the cane rope in

such a way as to prevent the wind from

blowing off the roof. Thatches are prepared

by both young and old in the ijaw land after

getting the skill from the elders. The thatch

laying process starts from the eave of the

roof and progresses to the ridge at the top of

the roof. Thatches are also used for the

construction of the ridge cap, which is

normally anchored at the top with the aid of

moderately weighty materials such as

wooden sticks etc. to prevent the wind from

blowing it off.

In the other way round, when corrugated

iron roofing sheets (zinc) is to be used, the

trusses are constructed with hard woods all

through but the pattern is the same thing

with the thatch roof. And they are fastened

to one another with nails before the

placement of the zinc roofing sheets. The

corrugated iron roofing sheets (zinc) are

fastened to the purlins with the help of zinc

nails. But there is no difference in the

construction of the walls.

The builder also gets long flat sticks of

either split raffia palm bamboo or Indian

bamboo and cane ropes to construct the wall

frames for holding the wet mud. With the

aid of the cane ropes, the builder ties the

bamboo sticks to the vertical row of wooden

poles at a right angle and spaced at an

interval of 150 to 200mm to form two criss-

cross pattern, one on the inside and the other

on the outside of the wall frame. This

process starts from the wall plate and

progresses to the ground level with

provisions for doors and windows. A

builder may use nails in place of cane ropes

obtained from the forest. Once the wall

frames are ready, the clay soil as walling

material is prepared by digging a pit near the

building site which can later be covered with

domestic wastes, or imported soil from

somewhere else. Enough water is added to

the soil, and the well-moistened clay is

trodden with the bare feet or turned over

with a spade to properly mix it to form a soft

fine textured soil. The plastic clay is now

scooped and filled into framework of the

wooden posts and split Indian or raffia

bamboo. The walls are plastered internally

and externally with watery clay soil locally

called (Umbortor) which is obtainable from

the banks of the rivers, to cover the exposed

framework after the clay walls are allowed

to dry and harden in few days. The watery

clay soil is normally mixed with a suitable

quantity of palm oil fuel (POF) or saw dust

as reinforcement material before its used to

plaster the walls to prevent unnecessary

crack lines in the body of the walls. After

the plastering, the walls are allowed to dry

for some few days, and then a brown clay

soil mixed with river sand is again prepared

to scrub the face of the walls to add beauty

to the building. The floor is filled with the

clay soil to the required height. The ceiling

is constructed with the bamboo from the

raffia palm tree or split Indian bamboo,

thatches, plank, paper ceilings etc.

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Figure 2: Wooden Sticks Figure 3: Indian Bamboos

Source: Source: Tamaraukuro et al 2016

Figure 4: Cane rope Figure 5: Auger (Digger)

Source: Tamaraukuro et al 2015 Source: Field work

Figure 6: Thatches Figure 7:Mud house wall framework

Source: Field work Source: Field work

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Figure 8: Mud building with zinc roof Figure 9:Mud house with thatch roof

Source: Field work Source: Field work.

Figure 10: Mud wall Figure 11:Mud house with plastered walls

Source: Field work Source: Field work

Figure 12: Indian Bamboo tree

Source: Tamaraukuro et al 2016

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Conclusion

Before the introduction of modern European

architecture and imported building

materials, the Ijaw people built their houses

to meet their social, cultural and religious

needs with locally available materials. But,

many young ones who are denied of this

building technology in the present

generation are homeless due to the high cost

of modern conventional building materials.

Hence the only way out is to create an

exposition of this building technology.

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http://www.onlinenigeria.com/finance/?blurb=660#ixzz3vEAaAQfk

http://www.onlinenigeria.com/finance/?blurb=660#ixzz3vEAaAQfk

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