PRIZE 2011 TO TANEKA BERI, BENIN

The 22nd edition of International Carlo Scarpa Prize for Gardens is dedicated to Taneka Beri, a village of Atakora, Benin.

The village is in north-western Benin, in the Taneka hills, southern offshoots of the Atakora massif, a crucial nexus in the history of the peoples of the region and the watershed

between the basins of the Volta, the Niger and the Ouémé, the river that runs from north

to south through the country before emptying into the Gulf of Guinea.

It is part of a group of villages whose origins date back to the xviii century, when

they constituted a refuge from slave raiders from the south; its name oscillates between

the historical Seseirhà (“superimposed houses”), and the more recent Taneka Beri

(“great taneka”). It is divided into four parts called Satyekà, Tyaklerò, Galorhà and Pendolou, each of which comprises many nuclei inhabited by extended families. www.fbsr.it