État de conservation de l’architecture chez les Mouroum du département de la Tandjilé-Est (République du Tchad)

Abstract

Traditional architecture, the art of endogenous built presents itself as a paradigm of identification of ethnolinguistic groups in Sub- Saharan Africa. In the Republic of Chad and precisely in the department of Tandjilé-Est, this traditional structure is in prose to a very advanced degradation. Our work entitled "State of conservation of architecture among the Mouroum of the department of Tandjilé- Est (Republic of Chad), is part of the issue of conservation and revalorization of material culture through the local built. This work proposes not only to safeguard the traditional know- how which materializes the Mouroum culture, but also to improve the historiographic landscape of a protean cultural identity. The formal description of the endogenous architectural works suggests that we have models specific to the Mouroum culture. The main concern of this study is to see how the new architectural types have affected the endogenous model on the spatial, technical and structural levels and led to the degradation of endogenous architectural works. Indeed, this mutation has impacted the socio- cultural and economic life of the Mouroum. To provide an answer to this concern, we have convened an interdisciplinary methodological approach that combines history, ethnography, anthropology and archeology. Therefore, this approach will allow us to collect written, ethnographic, historical and archaeological data to minus identify Mouroum architecture. In order to better understand the quintessence of the data acquired, four theoretical grids have been called upon in this work namely: Cultural Ecology, Functionalism, Diffusionism finally the Theory of Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Property. The results obtained indicate the existence of different architectural types, namely traditional domestic, local industrial, funerary, mixed or synthesis and imprint architecture. Restoration techniques were practiced by the ancient Mouroums. Suggestions concerning the dissemination of information and awareness on the importance of architecture are made as well as the probable strategies based on a project of an ecological habitat would be necessary for the conservation and the perpetuation of this material cultural heritage Mouroum.