Kouto is a small town in the far north of Côte d'Ivoire, close to the borders with Mali and Burkina Faso, and its mosque is one of the best-known of the Sudanese-style buildings of the region. Mud-brick walls rise in battered buttresses, each topped by a small pinnacle, and timber beams project from the surface like the quills of a hedgehog. Seen across a field in the morning light, it looks as though it grew there.
Take a moment to think about how this landscape looks from a motorbike. The country around Kouto is open savanna, with shea trees, mango groves, cashew plantations and cotton or maize fields, and low granite hills here and there. The road surface can be good on main routes and rough on the side roads, with laterite dust in the dry season and mud when the rains come. Between December and February the harmattan blows in from the Sahara, dimming the sun and coating everything in fine dust, which is a nuisance for riders but turns sunsets a deep red.
The tradition behind the mosques is tied to Dyula traders, Muslim merchants who moved goods like kola nuts, gold and salt across West Africa. They founded commercial towns, and the mosque was the centre of each one. Over time local masons developed the Sudanese style, using the same earth as the houses and the same techniques, and the rebuilding of the plaster after the rains became a village event. Some mosques here are several centuries old in their foundations, even though the surface is renewed every year.
There is no sizeable town on the list, and services can be thin. Plan fuel in advance, because stations are not frequent in the north, and carry water and cash in small notes. Use local help to find the right person to ask for access, and be modest in dress. The people in the villages are friendly, curious and used to visitors who stop for a few minutes and take photographs. Respect for the building and for the people who maintain it makes the stop worthwhile.