Photo credit: Gaëtan Noussouglo, 2025

DESCRIPTION

This station symbolises the captives’ concealment. The anthill, a highly dangerous site for humans, was also a preferred hiding place for men and women pursued during raids. At first glance, this is an ant habitat, a composite object that ants build by excavation, in the form of a dome. The purpose of the anthill is to protect the queen or queens and the brood. It provides the colony with security and shelter from the elements. It is also the preferred hiding place for men and women hunted down by warriors during raids. The earth of the ant hill, also known as “white clay,” is consumed as food.

LITERARY EXCERPT Esclaves, 2009, by Kangni Alem

Strange ants had tried to bring him down, but when he was transformed into a powerful elephant, Chacha roamed the savannah. They were completely white and larger than any other species of ants, but they had shorter legs and at the front of their heads, a kind of pincer. Truly strange ants that don't live underground but build red clay towers on their territory, sixteen to twenty-four feet high. He had broken one with his elephant trunk and saw streets and underground houses springing up in front of him, from which they emerged to chase him, lacerating his trunk, nose, and upper lips until they bled. Attacked from all sides, he trumpeted, hit his trunk against the acacias, scratched the ground with his tusks, and finally managed to get rid of his aggressors. Then, cautiously, he went back and destroyed the rest of the tower down to its base. (pp. 93-94)