The defining sight of Tiébélé: courtyard compounds whose walls are painted by Kassena women in geometric and figurative patterns using white, red ochre, and black pigments. The designs are not merely decorative — they encode information about identity, fertility, and spiritual protection, and the vocabulary of motifs differs between compounds. The whole village is repainted after the rainy season, which means the painting is also a collective act of renewal. The combination of earthen architecture and surface decoration makes this some of the most distinctive vernacular building in West Africa; it has no close parallel elsewhere.