Konso - Settlements



The Konso live in about thirty-five walled towns, with average populations of 1,500 and a maximum of about 3,000, covering from 6 to 14 hectares, often on the summits of hills or at other easily defensible sites. The walls are without mortar, 3.0 to 4.5 meters high; they are intended only to deter a surprise attack, not to resist a siege. They are usually surrounded by a dense belt of vegetation as a further deterrent to attack. Each town is separated into two divisions, and a man who is born in one is forbidden to live in the other. The divisions have no other social function, however. They are divided into wards, which may contain twenty to eighty homesteads. The average population of a homestead is five, comprising a married man, his wife, and their children. Homesteads are always on two levels; ideally, the upper level is for humans and the lower level for animals. Each homestead contains sleeping huts, kitchen, granaries, and animal stalls and is surrounded by a wooden fence. These fences form continuous walls along the paths within the towns. There are also numerous public meeting places (at least one for each ward), where men sit during the day and where ceremonies take place. Each public place has a men's house, where the married men usually sleep at night, together with the bachelors, but these houses are unoccupied during the day.


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