Blacks in Africa have been building mud huts for thousands of years. Nowadays the poorest among them would rather live in cardboard and tin shacks than mud huts. The government insists on using bricks and mortar to build homes for the poor, but the cob method is more affordable and aesthetically appealing.

"Blacks in Africa (...) for thousands of years"
Really? Haha! If Africans are not black, then who is?
In French, it's called a "pléonasme", and in English, correct me if i'm wrong, a "neologism"...

Great clip, by the way...

@akagugo,

There are other people in Africa besides the Blacks.

Michelle has done a very good job educating us about Africa. Once more, she has given us a great clip so we can learn.

Thanks Dorine. Indeed, there are white, Indian, Coloured and black Africans, just as there are white, black, North American Indian, Coloured, Latino etc, people in the USA. But then you should know about multi-culturalism(sic), akagugo, living, as you say, in Mauritius, just off the South African eastern seaboard, where there is such a blend of nationalities, French, Indian, African, Chinese etc., yet you are all Mauritians. (In fact, we have a large community of Mauritians in KwaZulu-Natal). Those born and raised in this country are South Africans, no matter what race.

It is a great eco-friendly way of building, but the weakness appears to show up when an earthquake strikes. Many of the poor who perish in earthquakes lived in mud homes.

Yea, Napster, but there is this young Australian engineer who has developed a great technique that involves creating a grass, or rope, even wooden latticework that, embedded into mud, helps these structures resist earthquakes. Very successfully. He's developed his invention in Pakistan, or somewhere like that to market into the third world,

Fortunately for us on the southern tip of Africa, earthquakes (and tornados) are extremely rare events. We are also spared the misery of volcanoes, hurricanes and tsunamis. However we do suffer the ravages of drought and fire