The Quest for Colonial Style in French West Africa

Abstract

Marché Kermel and Marché Sandaga were established at the beginning of the twentieth century in the contemporary heart of colonial Dakar, Senegal, the capital of French West Africa (AOF). In terms of general size and building techniques—both are based on prefabricated iron—they evoke the great covered markets and similar structures erected in France and other European countries in the late nineteenth century. Yet, in matters of style, each constitutes a unique and outstanding monument in Dakar as well as in French West Africa. Relying on primary and secondary sources and on fieldwork, we would like to trace the stylistic origins of these markets, hardly known in the relevant literature, and to analyze their meaning against the background of the colonial situation in sub-Saharan Africa. Moving from a transplanted fin-de-siècle neo-Moorish toward an imagined neo-Sudanese, we bring to the fore each paradox, on the theoretical and physical levels.