Colonial Architecture and Urbanism in Africa

'This valuable collection of scholarly articles has significantly broadened and deepened our understanding of colonial architecture and urban transformation in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Africa. The contributors to this volume have masterfully unpacked simplistic arguments that have failed to grasp the complex dynamics that shaped the relationship between colonial rule and city building in Africa. This book marks a significant advance in scholarship in the disparate fields of architectural history, urban studies, and city planning.' Martin J. Murray, University of Michigan, USA 'From the States, Africa and architecture operate as isolated symbolic territories. Attempts made to understand one often negate the other. Colonial Architecture and Urbanism in Africa demonstrates this mode of understanding is historically obsolete. This phenomenal collection of essays depicts the self-conscious inscription of the West's architectural/urban identities (eg. English, French, German) on to Africa. Such practices, usually taken as benign styles or formal technique, are meticulously analyzed for ideological content and political discourses. Within these details Africa, architecture, and urbanism represent the interrelated means to impose, manage, and defy complex aesthetic regimes. Indeed, the collection itself signifies the resistance to pervasive, colonial machineries and their claim on modernity and history.' Darell W. Fields, University of California Berkeley, USA and author of Architecture in Black '... the book is certainly to be acquired for its independent research and ’archival’ value of many of the chapters - and will make an important addition to any library with an interest in longer term urban and architectural development worldwide, especially focussed on African studies.' Newsletter of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain '... the 16 essays included in this collection are undoubtedly a positive and very important addit