Space, Architecture, Culture and Globalization in West and Southern Africa

Abstract

This paper arises from a search for an answer to the question, “How can I find African Architecture?” in the context of the need to give African communities a voice in urban renewal projects in the UK. The author travelled from September to December 2001 in West and Southern Africa, recording a range of buildings, which presented themselves. The paper has been written while travelling, without access to a library, largely depending on what was available in bookshops along the way. Akumang-Parry’s paper on the images used to “otherize” Africa during President Clinton’s visit, and others in the Journal, gave a rationale to the evident continuing hegemony of Europe/American design in Africa. The author takes up this theme and uses “Architecture and Order”, a paper from the field of anthropology (rather than architecture), to examine the issues of the relationship between space and socio-economic and cultural issues. It is argued that a truly African architecture may only emerge when an African “syntax”, which gives meaning to space, can be developed. This would of necessity involve joint working between architects, planners and others who produce the built environment, and writers, sculptors, painters, musicians, dramatists and others in the arts and cultural industries. It is proposed that policies are called for, which ensure that a part of capital funding for building and infrastructural projects is reserved to build capacity and involve the cultural industries, as a precondition for the emergence of a truly African-built environment and infrastructure. The author found that, rather than appropriate yet more African images for the “north”, his search could only be answered when Africans in the Diaspora could also be part of, and contribute to, the ensuing creativity.