Colonial Architecture and Urbanism in Africa

Colonial architecture and urbanism in Africa created a built environment purposely suited to the administrative apparatus of empire: architecture and urbanism sought to project the authority of the European powers while simultaneously stabilizing the fragile European identity at the colonial frontier. This book seeks to uncover the multiple ways in which colonial architectural and urban design practices reconstituted colonial cities in Africa.

Dr Fassil Demissie, Associate Professor, Department of Public Policy Studies, DePaul University, USA

Contents: Colonial architecture and urbanism in Africa: an introduction, Fassil Demissie; Part I Archaeology of Colonial Architectural and Urbanism: French territoriality and urbanism: General Lyautey and Architect Prost in Morocco (1912-1925), Hassan Radoine; Architectural transfer, Italian colonial architecture in Libya: 'Libyan rationalism' and the concept of 'Mediterraneity', 1926-1942, Vittoria Capresi; Imperial sanctuaries: Arab urban enclaves on the East African coast, Mohamed El Amrousi; The point of pointed architecture: its revival in Europe and its appearance in 'colonial' mosques, Cleo Cantone; Whose colony and whose legacy? Layers of power and hybrid identities in Edendale, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, Debbie Whelan; The turning point in urban policy for British Colonial Africa, 1939-1945, Richard Harris and Susan Parnell; 'Aya Mahobo': migrant labour and the cultural semiotics of Harare (Mbare) African township, 1930-70, Maurice Taonezvi Vambe. Part II Colonial Disciplinary Institutions: Penal architecture: an essay on prison designs in colonial Senegal, Dior Konaté; Imagining a Christian territory: changing spatial strategies in the missionary outposts of Scheut (Kasai, Congo, 1891-1940), Bram Cleys and Bruno De Meulder; Pro fide et patria: Anglicanism and ecclesiastical architecture in Southern and Central Africa, 1848-1903, G.A. Bremner; 'Montcassin, Montserrat or ... an Alcazar?' Architecture, propaganda and everyday school practices in the Collège du Saint-Esprit in Bujumbura (Burundi), Johan Lagae; The grid of Saint-Louis du Sénégal, Mark Hinchman; Buildings as symbols and metaphors of colonial hegemony: interrogating colonial buildings and architecture in Kenya's urban spaces, Maurice Amutabi. Part III Colonial Modernities: Building dominion and the colonial overseas: the culture of British fabrics of financial intervention in (South) Africa at the end of Empire, Rhodri Windsor-Liscombe; Das Neue Afrika: Ernst May's 1947 Kampala plan as c