For Kenyan architects, an unhealthy romance with everything Western

Best cultural project, Manda Airport, Lamu by AIA Adventis Architects (L) Special Mention award, Parliament Buildings by Triad Architects. The jury reamrked that it was a surprisingly confident and skilled use of modernist line, mannerist delight, and almost baroque drama and composition, this fine civic building sets itself apart from the often literal symbolism and ponderous expressive urges of post-colonial buildings for the functioning of African governments. It is important to realise that a building of such elegant forceful expression and such staying power was executed by a very young architect of limited experience, but evidently of natural and deep-seated skill and discretion. PHOTO/NATION

What you need to know:

  • The Architectural Association of Kenya recently awarded the best in the industry, but this comes at a time when the sector is having a discussion on the invasion of Western influence on local architecture and the devastating effect this has on Kenyan architects, who are confined to the shadows of their foreign colleagues.
  • Inside, why it is no wonder that few Africans get a chance to design major projects in their own cities
  • It is also a shame to see that whenever a building of traditional African influence emerges, there is normally a foreigner at the helm. In Kenya, for example, we have the Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC), built to replicate a traditional African hut, where Kenyan architect David Mutiso worked with the Norwegian architect, Karl Henrick Nostvick.

Africa is fast moving towards development and modernisation.

Sadly, though, the continent is yet to break away from the shackles of being a passive recipient of European progress in the architectural arena. Like most other aspects of our culture, our architecture has been invaded by numerous external influences.

Buildings that carry an identity of the indigenous people of Africa are on a fast decline in favour of imported culture.

For example, in Kenya, buildings in Nairobi are a testimony to the influences of various industrialised countries.

A walk around the city reveals buildings of British, Indian, and even Dutch influence. Residential areas tell a similar story; the financially successful Africans have built their Victorian houses or fancy Tuscany structures.

Few, if any, can be said to be of clear African traditional influence. As for the authentic African structures, one has to go out to the Bomas of Kenya to be able to see what existed before the foreign invasion. The younger Nairobi urban crowd has probably never seen a traditional African house, save for what they might see in pictures.

BETTER THAN THEIR OWN

One is forced to wonder; is this to say that Africans had no developed architecture before the Europeans came? Assuming that they did, is it then to say that Kenyans thought the foreign culture was better than their own?

Some will argue that due to the long years of colonialism, the European ways of architecture were bound to stick in Africa. But then, it has been more than 50 years since independence for most African countries. Why have they not shaken off the colonial legacy and reclaimed their identity? Why have the efforts to do so been so minimal?

Architecture is a major expression of a peoples’ culture. The various African peoples had forms of architecture peculiar to them.

Whereas a generalisation of what is truly African architecture may be difficult due to the vastness of the subject, it surely did exist. In today’s world, these may be regarded as primitive, but a deep study points towards a highly developed technology.

The ancient Egyptians and early inhabitants of Sudan built the pyramids, the Shona of Zimbabwe built the Great Zimbabwe, and the Malians built Timbuktu with no help from outside.

Other African architectural expressions that existed before the European influence include the magnificent mosques built of mud in Djenné and Mopti in Mali, the rock-hewn churches of Ethiopia, and the Islamic monuments of coastal eastern Africa.

However, for some reason, Eurocentric scholars have strived to deny the credit due to Africans in these cases, claiming that they must have been built by aliens.

RARELY CONSIDERED

Whereas traditional Africa had a lot to offer to the world in terms of building and architecture, the same cannot be said of the situation today.

African architecture is rarely considered with reference to contemporary architecture. Whenever there is talk of contemporary architecture, there is always a tendency to look towards the Western type of architecture.

This is probably because people understand architecture from the viewpoint of the West, or because Africans have not worked hard enough to claim their place in world architecture.

While Africans have borrowed, and continue borrowing, from other cultures, consistently missing from the conversation is a mention of Africa’s contribution to the other cultures.

They appear to have borrowed very little from us. This encourages the notion that maybe we, Africans, have nothing to offer to the world in terms of building and architecture.

First to use stone

This notion is wrong as traditional Africa had developed technologies that cannot be seen anywhere else in the world before Africans used them.

Indeed, the contributions of Africa cannot be ignored, except by those who wish to relinquish Africa’s rightful place in the history of architecture.

Early Egyptians were the first to build in stone and use stone bricks and lime-base plaster. Many other structures of other cultures did not survive antiquity the way Egyptian architecture did because they were built of mud bricks. It is from Egypt’s engineering achievements that all later Mediterranean and Near Eastern civilisation based their constructions.

Perhaps by having a deep analysis of the contributions of Africans to architecture we can continue the long history of innovation, creation, and fusion of our traditions with the modern trends.

Africans, by failing to properly document, record, and replicate or continually use and develop these technologies, have ensured that African architecture remains to be perceived as useless in the modern times.

Our failures have ensured that not many people recognise our architecture for its individual creativity. This makes it difficult for Africans to get credit for their contribution to architecture and denies builders, designers, and architects practising in Africa a chance to produce structures that exemplify our cultural identity.

Indeed, we have allowed our traditional technologies to be suppressed and be altogether drowned and hidden away from the world by Eurocentric standards.

Our easy inclination to adapting Western standards has made our indigenous technologies, form, and designs appear not fit for use in modern Africa, and emerging architects join the field with this attitude.

AFRICAN INSPIRATIONS

Whereas it is not wrong to borrow from other cultures to enrich our own, it is wrong for us Africans to allow the foreign ideas in architecture to override our architectural culture with an apparent air of superiority.

As it is now, the invasion is having a devastating effect on creative emergence of African architecture as African architects are forced to wallow in the shadows of their foreign colleagues. It is not a wonder that few Africans get a chance to design major projects in their own cities.

It is also a shame to see that whenever a building of traditional African influence emerges, there is normally a foreigner at the helm. In Kenya, for example, we have the Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC), built to replicate a traditional African hut, where Kenyan architect David Mutiso worked with the Norwegian architect, Karl Henrick Nostvick.

In Uganda, Swiss architect Justus Dahinden created the Namugongo National Shrine Catholic Basilica by creatively combining modern building materials with beautifully synthesised traditional architectural forms. He further created Mityana Pilgrims’ Shrine, a successful melding of traditional architecture with Western design.

In Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, French architect Roger Erell designed St Anne’s Basilica by combining native artistic inspiration and local traditional techniques with European innovations to come up with a church of massive proportions, drawing inspiration from the spear heads of Northern Congo, the mud huts of Chad, and the medieval cathedrals of Europe. The basilica is one of the major monuments in Brazzaville.

All the above examples have a special standing in the countries they belong as touristic attractions and national monuments. This goes to show that traditional African influences can still be put to use in modern-day architecture.

While it is impossible to go back to the architectural styles and methods our forefathers used before the foreign invasion, a rescue of Africa’s dignity and identity is definitely overdue and Africa and Africans must stand up for their space on the globe.

An architectural approach is just one way this can be achieved. Replacing our traditional architecture with foreign models is a negation of the self, which will eventually lead to a tainted worth.
As in the above examples, the foreign technologies and designs can be synthesised with our traditional methods without the latter becoming a junior partner. The old should be seen as a resource for the advancement of the new tradition for the benefit of historical and socio-cultural continuity.

The infiltration and conformity to the foreign ideas has continued to be encouraged, particularly by developers seeking to make quick cash, architects seeking a quick and easy job, and owners seeking to own a Western-like piece of architecture.

AFRICAN ASSET

Few incentives exist for a traditional-influenced house. It is perhaps for this reason that our architects are getting more inclined to sticking to the easy-to-copy and conventional Western designs instead of coming up with imaginative designs that could set them apart from the crowd.

If this trend continues, no African architect will be confident enough to try a new idea that encompasses our traditional architecture.

The pressures of modern architecture will continue to suppress and hinder the development and evolution of African architecture, and in turn, this will lead to the death of what is essentially African architecture.

African architecture should be an asset to be exploited by Africa. It should evolve, along with other institutions of society, to meet changing needs and to create a tradition that survives modernisation in a sustainable and culturally appreciative way.

Due to the threat of diminishing African heritage, developers should strive to ensure that African architecture is not overshadowed, but strengthened, by new, emerging methods.

In order to build a strong African architectural heritage, it is necessary for all of us to understand and value our past and our African heritage.

Without such an understanding, no genuine African architecture will stand the test of Western influence, neither will any be able to emerge.

We will continue to borrow randomly and at a high price from foreign models and in the process lose our heritage and the ambiguity of what constitutes African architecture will persist.

Does African architecture have a place in the modern world? Send your comments to [email protected]