Architecture of Colonialism

The core colonial era changes present within African Architecture as conveyed by the articles for this week are all some version of a combination of resistance and submission to the reigning colonial administration.

Mousgoum house; example of tòlék in Mourla, Cameroon, 1996

    In Steven Nelson’s “Writing Architecture”, the author describes how the Mousgoum – a cultural group that has typically resided in the flood plains between northern Cameroon and Chad – had a technique, the tòlék, that began fading from the group’s architectural landscape as early as the 1930s as a result of various historical phenomena, including French colonialism. The tòlék was a freestanding dome made of clay that served as an important vehicle for maintaining and transmitting the group’s cultural heritage, as such their disappearance is quite troublesome. Luckily, as of 1995 there has been a resurgence of this architectural form, illustrating that the Mousgoum historical consciousness in the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century has been in part a function of their fear of irrevocable cultural loss. 

Dutch lodge in Anomabo, Ghana

    In “Status and Mimicry”, Micots explores hybrid African colonial period architecture using Anomabo, a port in coastal Ghana, as a case study. The author found that the numerous residences that arose between the 1870s and 1920s with facades inspired by British styles were built by Africans in Anomabo in order to resist British hegemony through active participation in the creation of the markers of selfhood and cultural belonging through the construction of the built environment. 

    In “Building in the Name of God”, Malaquis describes the Bamileke’s community reaction to colonial powers and their institutions, namely the Church, as seen in changes in their architecture. These alterations were first a preoccupation by the ruling class to denote their alliances with their newfound Christian allies, as seen by churches being constructed in the immediate vicinity of the tsa due to directive from the mfo. Other examples included gates being adorned with illustrations of the last supper or prominent Protestant reformers, such as Melanchthon. This was in effect a way for the chiefs to ostensibly advertise the diplomatic ties they entertained with the European powers. This acquiescence, however, was short-lived as it became readily apparent that the mission’s beliefs and that of the Bamileke’s were not compatible, especially due to the Bamileke’s attitudes regarding polygamy. This caused many edifices built due to the Christian faith, such as churches and schools, to be demolished or shut down and allowed to disintegrate. Many congregations were then given plot of lands on which to build new edifices; this outwardly benevolent decision, however, was in truth a way to discredit the Christians by giving them plots that were typically reserved for the more sordid of Bamileke traditions – such as where they would dispose of the bodies of men and women who were deemed unfit to be buried according to traditional law. Many of those that followed their congregation began building their new homes using the construction methods introduced by the Europeans, introducing a new settlement pattern. Eventually, there was a melding of local and foreign practices as the ruling elite learned of the troubles with ostracizing such a large faction of the population. 

    In terms of colonial factors that may have impacted my proposed research project, Santeria is a diasporic African religion that emigrated to the Caribbean and Latin America as a result of the transatlantic slave trade; it is a result of a melding of the colonial religion Christianity with the Yoruba religion of West Africa. Within Santeria, the Orisha (divinities), various spirits, and familial ancestors are recognized as being on, around, and within practitioners’ bodies. They are sensed and felt on the body; these multiple energies are known as copresences. Priests within the religion traverse through life with copresences, talking to them and placing them on each other’s bodies even as they are understood to manifest through spiritual possessions and trance. Copresences emerged historically in enslaved black people’s pragmatic everyday negotiations with Cuban colonialism and racial violence. Spirits and Orisha engage in warfare; these copresences liberate those enslaved in problematic situations and infiltrate enemies. They embody the physical endurance of black enslaved Africans in the Americas under colonialism and imperialism, as well as contemporary forms of racial feeling and marginalization.