2014
Jack Travis FAIA ARCHITECT
Cultural Design PRIMER + Resource Guide
QUOTE 1 – NNAMDI ELLEH
1
"...How does one teach African architectural history in the American academy? Scholars in European and African
universities are also looking for answers to this question. Architectural historians have shied away from writing a history of
African architecture because the subject is vast, and no one knows exactly where to begin and where to end. This book
addresses the methodological problem by defining what I see as the three major roots of African architecture, and by using
these definitions as underpinnings for an elaboration on the architecture of each region and country in Africa..."
2
"...There are scholars who have given up the notion of a detailed historical analysis of African architecture because
contemporary historiography has resented Africa as a continent without history, and because they subscribe to culturist
overemphasis on distinct cultures of the multiple ethnic groups of Africa. African Architecture: Evolution and
Transformation recognizes the need to differentiate between the various ethnic groups of Africa, but takes advantage of the
social and cultural histories which in one way or anther ultimately connects the ethnic groups to one another to lay a solid
foundation on which African architecture can be studied..."
3
"...Triple Heritage Concept...The Triple Heritage Concept explains how indigenous African culture, Islamic culture, and
Western culture come together at different stages to create a cultural history for Africa, and this cultural history is replicated
in Africa's architectural history..."
4
"...We are at a stage where scholars can no longer give excuses that the greatest short-coming in African history is the fact
that outsiders- especially colonialists- who had vested interests on a distorted African history, wrote what is available to us.
While that is a fact, the time has come for Africanist scholars around the world to take the destiny of Africa-focused
scholarship in their hands. The information is available, so what is needed is the will to undertake such projects and to
submit them to scholarly criticism..."
5
"...Architecture, as an art and science that shapes the environment, is one of the methods utilized by humanity in the
elevation of the human spirit, and there are more ancient monuments in Africa representing the human search for eternal
life than on any other continent. It is therefore, no coincidence that Africa, where three major cultures converge, tells us
more about our past than do most parts of the world..."
6
"...some historians would like to give Egypt back to Africa and to re-examine its history, starting from the South, and not
from the North or North-West..."...racism was, from the beginning, an important factor in the downplaying of the Egyptians
and the dismissal of the Ancient Model, and after 1860 it became the overriding one." On the other hand, Egypt was
excluded from the rest of Africa when it became popular to associate the country with the development of Western
civilization...There is a presumptuous belief that Africans do not have the ability to build any magnificent structures and that
any architectural monument in Africa is of Euro-Asian origin. Most eminent 18th - and 19th century European historians
and philosophers advanced this concept without restraint...To placate this historical viewpoint, the 18th- and 19th century
Western historian often excludes some parts of Africa, adopting the convenient opinion that Africa is a "dark continent
illuminated only along the Nile Valley and the North Coast by people who were at least partially Mediterranean...we cannot
amputate half of Africa and then call a portion of what remains "African art" and architecture..."(There are) Pan-Africanist
scholars who believe that ancient Egypt was a Black African civilization. These Pan-Africanists believe that "the history of
black Africa will remain suspended in air and cannot be written correctly until African historians dare to connect it with the
history of Egypt. On the other hand, there are Eurocentric historians who believe in the Aryan model...To these historians,
it is unthinkable for the crown jewels of Western civilization- Greece and Rome- to have African roots...
7
"...in the 18th century four major forces encouraged the destruction of African history in Europe. They are: Christian
reaction, the rise of the concept of progress, the growth of racism, and Romantic Hellenism. The forces reinforced the
historical viewpoint that Africa south of the Sahara has no history by down-playing the significance of Egyptian culture to
world civilization. In addition, the changed structure of Egypt's racial composition after hundreds of years of European and
Arabian immigration allowed its European admirers to claim that it was essentially and originally white. The concept of
progress condemned Egyptian antiquities and scientific achievements by designating Egypt a relic of the past which has
not place in the growth of modern civilization. On the other hand, the relics found in Greece were admired and uplifted as
progressive culture and examples for the advancement of European culture and civilization..."
2014
Jack Travis FAIA ARCHITECT
Cultural Design PRIMER + Resource Guide
8
In addition, scholars often explain the relationship between ancient Egypt and the surrounding civilizations in terms of
colonizer and the colonized or Egyptian races (colonizers) versus other African races (colonized). This is a militarist
explanation of relationships that were actually tribal wars, and its purpose is to isolate Egypt from the plethora of ancient
African civilizations. There is a serious problem with the militarist approach- it does not consider the concept of historical
continuity in Africa as it does in European history...For example, Roman colonization of Greece is not perceived as a
superior race (Romans) colonizing an inferior race (Greeks); rather it is analyzed as the continuity of European history. All
cultural exchange between Rome and Greece are European. This method of regional relationship analysis should be
applied to the relationship between ancient Egypt and her neighbors such as Aksum, Punt and Meroe....Finally, there are
the problems of slavery, pre-colonial Africa, and colonialism. The debate centers on the question of how much damage
was done to Africa by slavery and colonialism, or whether colonialism itself civilized Africa.
9
It is important that, within the framework of a verifiable thesis, society at large be educated on the subject of Afrocentricity in
architecture and in other fields of study as well. Afrocentricity will lose its legitimacy if used only as a tool for the
advancement of an exclusive ethnocentric agenda instead of as a curriculum open to all who are interested. In addition, as
in all other fields, Afrocentricity should be open to debate and criticism because such exchange will advance our
knowledge of the subject. Afrocentricity must not become a dogmatic belief in the advancement of an academic antithesis
to the forefront as an alternative approach to history...These problems relate to architecture because architecture is one of
the most visible symbols of statehood and civilization. As a result, the questions of who built what, who migrated from
where, whether ancient Egyptians were African, and whether slavery and colonialism retarded the development of
architecture are significant in African history and make the subject more complex...Political residues from these problems
have been obstacles to the study of the history of African architecture. Especially in Africa, architecture as a profession,
architects themselves, and the general public all lose in this complex situation...(Consider) Professor Ali Mazrui's concept of
"the African, a triple heritage, indigenous, Islamic, and Western. African architecture from ancient times to the present
mirrors these triple cultural legacies and cannot be understood without this realization.
10
Modern architecture here refers to any architecture in Africa influenced by the Industrial Revolution in Europe, using
standardized mass-produced component parts, and having simplified building form and structure based on function.
NE Excerpts from:
African Architecture, Evolution and Transformation
by Nnamdi Elleh
Copyright 1997 by Mc Graw-Hill
ISBN 0-07-021506-5