Compressed ArchiAfrika December Magazine

ArchiAfrikaM A G A Z I N E
DECEMBER 2012
CONTENTS
Contributors
David Adjaye
Joe Osae-Addo
Berend van der Lans
Nat Nuno-Amarteifio
Gilbert Nii-Okai Addy
Mabel O. Wilson
Peter Tolkin
Kinna Likimani
Professor Kofi Asare Opoku
Amos Anyimadu
Professor Korang
Zaheer Allam & Zarrin Allam
Holcim Foundation
Tuuli Saarela
Editor
Tuuli Saarela
Dahlia Roberts
Art Director & Design
Constructs r+d
Joe Osae-Addo
Pallavi Kumar
Dahlia Roberts
Translation
Fabrice Aboussa with
assistance from Steve Tetteh Library at Gando Primary School by Francis Kéré

TABLE OF CONTENTS
EDITORIAL
By Tuuli Saarela, Editor of ArchiAfrika Magazine
An Introduction to ArchiAfrika
Accra
By Tuuli Saarela, Editor of ArchiAfrika Magazine
Africa’s Capital Cities
- an excerpt form David Adjaye’s book,’Urban
Africa’
By David Adjaye, Adjaye & Associates
CHAIRMAN’S CORNER
- why have we abandoned the mud hut?
By Joe Osae-Addo, Chairman of ArchiAfrika
Foundation
INTERVIEW WITH AMAECHI NDILI
Interview with Amaechi Ndili, Director of ArchiAfrika
Accra
Moving from Amsterdam to
Accra
By Berend van der Lans, Board Secretary of
ArchiAfrika Foundation
Accra in Our Own Words 1:
Recollection of a City
By Nat Nuno-Amarteifio, Director of ArchiAfrika Accra
2
3
4
5
6
Accra in Our Own Words 2:
- the story of Adedainkpo in Old Accra
By Gilbert Nii-Okai Addy
Listening There
- scenes from Ghana
Mabel O. Wilson, New York City
Peter Tolkin, Los Angeles
Culture as the Bedrock of
Change
- how can creative people engage in political
discourse without being politicians?
Excerpts from a debate between Nat Armarteifio,
Kinna Likimani and Professor Kofi Asare Opoku from
AiD 12.11
A Conversation about Creatives
and Politics
A conversation with Amos Anyimadu and Professor
Korang
The Slow Death of Mauritian
Architectural Identity
- a call for a regenerative architecture
By Zaheer Allam & Dr. Zarrin Allam
FRANCIS Kéré
- philosopher, activist, architect
By the Holcim Foundation about Diébédo Francis Kéré
7
8
9
10
11
12
ADVENTURERS IN
DIASPORA
13
1

ArchiAfrika is now based in Accra (AAAccra) and
we are broadening the discourse on Africa’s built
environment to encompass the role of socio-
cultural design inspired development. With the
world awakening to the great economic potential of
Africa, there is a revolution happening in the design
and cultural space. In West Africa, this movement is
epitomized by the ground-breaking architecture of
Koffi and Diakbate from the Ivory Coast, Francis Kéré
from Burkina Faso and Ghana’s own David Adjaye.
In this maiden issue of the ArchiAfrika Magazine, a
new team from Accra brings you stories expressive
of this new movement through contributions from
AdjayeonhisstudyofdesignontheAfricancontinent
and Kéré with his revolutionary ideas of sustainable
design realized in his own village of Gando, Burkina
Faso. In the year ahead, we aim to continue to share
exciting trends like these in design and architecture
led by creative people across Africa.
The style of this magazine is influenced by our
mandate to explore both the built and cultural space
in Africa. We believe the worlds of architecture/
design and culture are deeply linked and wish to bring
these ideas to a wider audience in a more personal,
narrative style, rather than purely academically.
In this issue, we sought wisdom from the creative
souls amongst us- such as Professor Korang and
Professor Opoku Asare- who helped us to explore
the connections between the creative and political
fields.
If you want to share your ideas with us, do get in
touch as we are seeking new contributors from
the continent and the diaspora. We want to create
dynamic, contextual content that is not typical of
mainstream media perceptions of Africa, but reflects
the new and exciting evolution of Africa today. We
also want to engage more fully with our audience
through our new website and blog, which will be
linked actively on social networks and on our youtube
channel.
This first issue of the ArchiAfrika Magazine is focused
on our new home (through the Accra In Our Own
Words series) but in subsequent issues, we will
begin to prepare for the next African Perspectives
conference taking place in Lagos Nigeria in November
2013 by exploring the theme “All Roads to Lagos.”
Look out for news and stories to stimulate ideas and
discussions on the conference themes: Redefining
the African Built and Cultural Space: Exploring
Architecture, Landscapes and Cultural Identities in
Africa.
For inspiration, we are looking within the continent
and the diaspora, particularly through south-south
dialogue with Asia, the Caribbean and Central
America, but not forgetting about our traditional
partners in North America and Europe. In this issue,
we have guest contributors Zaheer Allam & Dr.
Zarrin Allam who ask whether the architecture of
Mauritius is dying because of its disconnection with
its own heritage.
It is a type of re-connection that ArchiAfrika, as an
organization based in the Netherlands for 10 years,
is in the process of establishing with the physical
move of our office to Accra on the African continent.
We feel that we are no longer looking outward for
inspiration, but rather inward.
THE NEW ARCHIAFRIKA MAGAZINE
- Editorial
Tuuli Saarela
Editor of ArchiAfrika Magazine
Joe Addo, Chariman of Archi-Afrika with Francis Kéré Francis Kéré addressing the audience
Board member Hon. Nat Amertefio amongst the
audience
The team from Holcim Foundation amongst the
audience
Burkinabé band, Koroleko, entertained the audience
with music.
Ebo Taylor performing a couple of songs for the
audience, along with an album launch
ADVENTURERS IN THE DIASPORA
“NKOMO” SERIES featuring
Global Holcim Awards winner 2012 - Burkina Faso born,
Architect Diébédo Francis Kéré

AAAccra established its office in Accra in September
2012 and is taking over administrative duties of the
ArchiAfrika Foundation International Secretariat
from January 2013. We are grateful to the DOEN
Foundation which recognizes the importance of our
new mission and has agreed to support AAAccra
for its first three years on African soil. Through the
support of DOEN we can realize our true mandate
as a platform for promoting creative initiatives that
engage Africans on all levels. Our aim is to create
innovative projects and events that stimulate active
debate on the future of Africa’s built environment.
We are equally grateful to the Aga Khan Award for
Architecture(nowinpreparationfortheir12thaward
cycle) which supported the launch of the ArchiAfrika
Educational Network with a conference attended by
12 African schools of architecture in Accra in June
2012. The network aims to develop a collaborative
programme between design, architecture and
planning schools on the continent, nurturing talents
and creating a platform to engage the talented next
generation creative professionals in Africa and the
African diaspora. The conference was graciously
hosted and supported by Amaechi and Njide Ndili
Foundation and Golden Tulip Hotels, West Africa.
In 2013, we will offer the schools the chance to
participate in a virtual guest lecture series featuring
Francis Kéré, David Adjaye and other leading global
architects.
AAAccra is the organizer of the Adventurers in the
Diaspora (AiD) a monthly forum, which highlights
the achievements of creative people and their role
in the development agenda of Ghana. In December
2012, we hosted Francis Kéré, winner of the Holcim
Award for Sustainable Architecture in Accra. We are
also exploring a possible partnership with Holcim
Foundation during their visit to Ghana and Burkina
Faso. A pictoral essay of their visit can be found on
the back cover.
The evolution of ArchiAfrika has seen many
participants, supporters and players over the past
ten years. In this issue, we take the opportunity
to introduce to you the players past and present of
ArchiAfrika who are eager to share thoughts about
our growth and development throughout the years,
such as Board members Nat Amartefio, Amaechi Ndili
and Berend van der Lans. The team in Accra looks
forward to the years ahead with you, our readers.
ArchiAfrika Accra Board Members
Hon. Nat Amertefio
Joe Osae-Addo
Judith Aidoo
Steve Akuffo
Amaechi Ndili
Tuuli Saarela
ArchiAfrika Foundation Board Members
Joe Osae Addo
Abdelmoumen Benabdeljalil
Ola Uduku
Karel Bakker
Judith Aidoo
Berend Van Der Lans
African Architecture Matters
Berend van der Lans
Anthoni Folkers
Rachel Stella-Jenkins
Introducing
ArchiAfriKa
A ccra
AN INTRODUCTION TO ARCHIAFRIKA ACCRA
Tuuli Saarela
Editor of ArchiAfrika Magazine
ARCHIAFRIKA
FOUNDATION
PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS
CONFERENCE
& WORKSHOPS
PLATFORM
PARTNER EDUCATION
NETWORK

Africa’s Capital Cities
An excerpt form David Adjaye’s book,’Urban Africa’
David Adjaye, Adjaye & Associates
My ten-year study of the capital cities of Africa
is based on categorizing them according to their
position in one of six geographic regions: the
Maghreb, Desert, the Sahel, Savanna and Grassland,
Forest, and Mountain and Highveld. As suggested by
their names, each region has a different climate and
vegetation, as well as its own history and culture.
The thesis of my
study is that the
unique conditions
in each region
have had a
decisive effect on
the architecture
and urbanism
there.
This is especially clear in the capital cities of the
countries concerned.
The Maghreb is the region between the
Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts, and the Atlas
Mountains; it enjoys mild, rainy winters and hot, dry
summers, with a natural vegetation of grassland and
woodland. Africa’s Desert areas occur between 15
and30degreeslatitude,oneithersideoftheequator;
there is little moisture, with high temperatures and
high winds, and plant life is not sustainable. Sahel
means ‘shore’ and this is the semi-arid strip along the
southern edge of the Sahara; apart from a short wet
season, it is very hot, and the vegetation is verdant
or parched, depending on the season. The Savanna
and Grassland region lies to the south of the Sahel
and also includes areas in the north-east and south-
west of the continent; there is limited rainfall and
temperatures are warm to hot, supporting grassland
with scattered trees. Forest is the largest region and
includes the Congo basin and much of West Africa;
rainfall is high, along with the temperature and
humidity, and naturally supports evergreen forest
but much of this has been destroyed. The largest
sections of the Mountain and Highveld region form
a discontinuous spine running from the northeast to
the southeast of the continent; rainfall is variable,
depending on elevation, and temperatures are
relatively cool, supporting grassland and some
forest. The following account of the architecture and
urbanism of each region is taken from my recent
book Adjaye Africa Architecture.
The Maghreb
Due to its Mediterranean coastline, the Maghreb is
quite different from the other geographic regions.
The four capitals, three on the Mediterranean and
one on the Atlantic, are complex cities with layers
of history that give you a sense of a vast trajectory
through kingdoms and different times. But they
also have a strong sense of modernity, a modernity
that is still evolving. The origins of these cities lie
in their walled medinas: the dense, human-scale
environments,with verynarrowpassageways,whose
earliest buildings date back to the Middle Ages. Apart
from Algiers, where they are higher, the buildings of
the medina are never more than two or three storeys
high. They are agglomerative organizations that
provide an infrastructure for the daily life of the city,
where rich and poor occupy similar houses located in
different quarters.
At a later stage the Maghreb capitals were redefined
by colonisation. Three of them were French and the
concept of a new city – the colonial overlay – came
into play beyond the walls of the medina. In Tunis
the French constructed the ville nouvelle in the area
between the medina and the coast, with which it has
a formal relationship. The French city is neoclassical
in character, with grand boulevards and axes, so
that the indigenous and the colonial centres exist
side by side, as ‘twin cities’. As in Rabat and Algiers,
the picture has been complicated by the growth
Above: Exhibit 6
Courtesy Adjaye Associates

of further suburbs, but the relationship between
the medina and the French quarter in these cities
contributes to the sense that North Africans enjoy of
existing simultaneously with their history.
The cities of the Maghreb retain a more complete
record of their history than most other African cities.
The Maghreb has a long tradition of urbanism that is
based on the indigenous precedent of the medina.
Due to their historic role as centres of trade, they
offer a sense of protection, like citadels, and this
seems to have been their overriding inspiration. They
are an important reference point for people leading
a contemporary life in cities, which is very different
from places where the indigenous habitat is rural.
These cities are clearly part of world history, as well
as the history of Africa, and, for this reason, there is a
debate about the role of the city in the Maghreb that
would be more difficult to sustain in other regions.
Desert
These four capitals are in locations that distort
what you might expect from desert cities: Cairo and
Khartoum are on rivers, and Nouakchott and Djibouti
are on the Atlantic coast and the Gulf of Aden
respectively. Cairo is a city of hybrid styles organized
around the old fortified area at its heart. One of the
first extensions, the neoclassical city, anticipates the
megadensity that occurs in the modernist suburbs as
they pull away from the historic city. The residential
architecture in this area creates a cooler ground
plane that allows the life of the city to extend in
all directions without interruption. There is trade
everywhere and the compactness of the urban fabric
gives shade.
Comparing Cairo to the other desert city located on a
river, Khartoum has a civic quarter that looks across
the Blue Nile, just before it joins the White Nile.
The university and the administrative departments
are also based here, so the public face of the
city addresses the river, and the commercial and
residential areas spread outwards from it. The new
towers in the business area depend on technology
to make them habitable: symbols of modernity that
update the imagery of the lush river architecture,
which dominates the rest of the city.
Moving on to the two coastal cities, Nouakchott is
the one city in this group that most expresses the
desert, even though it is located close to the sea. It is
more temperate than if it were in the interior but it
nevertheless embodies a strong sense of the abstract
and simple geometry that pervades the local culture.
The mosque in Nouakchott, with multiple domes,
celebrates this with great elegance. Only bold forms
stand up to the strength of the light, which bleaches
colours and creates a soft atmosphere throughout
the city. In terms of its built fabric, the city orientates
itself away from the sea but, in the evenings, the life
of the city moves to the beach.
Despite its size, Djibouti is true metropolis and an
important port, with a rail connection to Ethiopia.
The old city is organized on a neoclassical grid, with
major and minor streets, squares and open spaces;
one side of the street is basically always in the
shade. The city has a mixed population that occupies
different quarters, though they are no longer as
clear-cut as they were in the past. It is an unusually
accommodating form of urbanism, a low city that
is also very public: in a harsh environment, it offers
protection to all who go there. Beyond the grid of
the old town, the new developments adopt a form of
coastal architecture: villa architecture with terraces
and balconies that look towards the view.
The Sahel
In the four cities of the Sahel, there is a very clear
layering of the relationship with the countryside, and
of how the city engages with its hinterland. Because
thelandscapeisonthethresholdbetweenvegetation
and desert, the domestic architecture is generally
horizontal – a cellular, atria-like architecture – while
the civic buildings often take the form of emphatic
vertical symbols. The architecture of Islam, with its
domes and minarets, plays a significant role here,
but there is a more general symbolism that relates to
a tradition of marking the distinction between desert
and built environment. The sense of materiality
in these cities is based on the sand and stone and,
where there is vegetation, it is encouraged as a way
of providing shade and moderating the climate. As
such it takes on ornamental qualities, providing a
distinguishing frame for certain buildings, but that is
not its primary function.
Like fragments from a previous era, the Sahel cities
contain some strong colonial buildings that continue
to make an important contribution to the larger
environment. These buildings started to develop a
dry, tropical architecture that could take its place
betweentheforestandthedesert.Itisanarchitecture
of colonnades and porticoes, rather than interior
space; one that starts to talk about moderating
the harshness of the heat and giving some respite
from the humidity. This is especially clear in the civic
buildings of Bamako, and in the shopping buildings
where the goods are displayed in a shaded area in
front of an enclosed storage space. There is a very
interesting mercantile component to the Sahel cities,
reflected in the way in which produce and goods are
thrust into the public realm.
In the Sahel, it is the architecture of the poor that
most expresses the horizontality of the landscape.
Thisarchitectureisaboutwallsthatencloseindividual
spaces – cells – and define perimeters. When you
are welcomed through the outer wall, you start to
realize that the building is made up of a series of
volumes that form deeper and more private spaces,
depending on the size of the house. Residences in
the Sahel do not normally articulate themselves as
singular dwellings, but as clusters or groups: this
seems to be the operating standard. When you travel
through the Sahel, this makes a powerful impression:
an architecture that is solely about the landscape
where it was created.
Savanna & Grassland
Therollingoutofthelandscape,likeacarpet,isoneof
the things that influence the shape of all the cities in
this region, and despite the distances between them
they have many similarities. Of the interior cities, two
are explicitly colonial – Pretoria and Antananarivo –
and two are more recent – Abuja and Gaborone – and
Above: Exhibit 5

something that you would ever find in France. This is
a strange contradiction but I think it is the reason that
Dakar and Antananarivo have been so easily adopted
by the indigenous communities as their own, as an
expression of their identity and their modernity.
Forest
This region includes twenty-five capitals and I only
have space to mention a few of them here. The Forest
is where the wetlands are, where the tropical rains
dominate the climate. There is an architecture of
fertility in this area, an architecture that has to deal
with the climate and at the same time is responsive
to the specific conditions in different places. The roof
architecture of Freetown is a good example of the
language of form that is necessary to deal with the
heavy rains. You can also see it in the architecture
of Monrovia, where you have overhanging roofs
everywhere; if you go there in the rain, you
understand why certain forms and details are used
in such a consistent way. Because of the incredible
rains, the architecture of Accra is dominated by big
roofs that protect the other building elements from
the worst of the weather. This readiness to respond
to the constant risk of inundation is what I mean
about the fertility of the architecture.
Bissau’s architecture has exactly this type of
multiple identity, where you can see both the
colonial expression and specific references to the
local cultural heritage. In Bissau there is a classical
Portuguese influence – it sets up emphatic vistas and
avenues – but the residential architecture, sitting
within the Portuguese plan, is primarily a response
to the climate, making shade from the sun and
being able to get rid of water as fast as possible. The
humidity is articulated by porches and balconies;
these threshold spaces are where you live.
Kampala is an inland city and the architecture and
planning respond to the garden-like nature of the site
and the low hills that define different parts of the city.
You have really long views and the key image shows
the mosque on top of a hill. The cathedral, with its
twin towers and Victorian brick details, is also very
prominent, as is the Sikh temple, standing in its own
neighbourhood. What is so lovely about Kampala is
that you find streets with impressive public buildings
and, not far away, residential streets where you
scarcely see any buildings, just a lush landscape
with the buildings in retreat. The architecture strives
to deal with the horizontality of the land, the way
in which you make shade, and extension and a
relationship to the next site – by layering things. In
the residential areas, there are many places where
you could be in an agrarian community rather than
in a relatively dense city.
Colonialism is a defining characteristic in all
the Forest cities. You sense a different colonial
presence in each of the geographic regions, and
their influences define the civic architecture in the
majority of capitals. African cities work through the
colonial to their current identity, and every one of
the cities that I visited included this experience. The
culture of the African city is basically hybridized and
the African citizen sees himself – reads himself –
through his local condition, his ethnic group, which
is his history, and through his colonial experience,
which is his modernity. People do not operate
within a single or a double consciousness, but with
a quadruple consciousness, and the colonial is only
one articulation among several.
Mountain & Highveld
This terrain includes ten cities, from Asmara in the
north to the mountain cities of Mbabane and Maseru
in the south. The general environment of the region
is comparatively permissive, in the sense that the
architecture does not need to take account of the
extreme climatic conditions found in other parts of
Africa. Because of the elevation, precipitation is high,
the vegetation is lush, and the landscape is often
bucolic. This is reflected in the picturesque, suburb-
like quality that you find in most of these cities, with
the exception of Asmara, Harare and Nairobi, the last
represent African modernity. Although the climate is
more temperate in this region than others, it is still
quite harsh and the architecture has had to cometo
terms with the strength of the light and the need
for shade. This explains the brise-soleil architecture,
with its strong horizontals, which articulates Dakar
and Pretoria. Abuja uses the technology of tinted
glass and, in Antananarivo, the vernacular roofs
and deeply recessed arcades provide a means of
controlling the light.
In contrast to some of the other terrains, these cities
demonstrate a commitment to public space. This is
partly to do with European colonialism – in Dakar,
Mogadishu, Pretoria and Antananarivo – but it also
figures quite explicitly in the new city of Gaborone,
which appears to have accepted the European model
for the creation of a forward-looking African city. The
fabric of these cities is predominantly horizontal,
providing an ideal lining for their civic spaces, and
they make use of axes, vistas, imposing facades and
formal planting, at a scale that influences their overall
organization and development. The major exception,
in terms of architectural space, is Abuja, where the
natural landscape continues through the city, due to
its relatively low density, and is the primary setting
for Nigeria’s major institutions.
The original architecture of the colonial cities was
very much designed for each place, despite being
imposed by foreign powers. Dakar and Antananarivo
are genuine experiments in place-making and
were organized not just for European settlers, but
also to make a relationship with the indigenous
communities. I refer to later versions of this
architecture as ‘tropical modernism’. It is sensitive
to climate and terrain and is carefully articulated to
reflect a relationship to place, giving each city its own
character. At the urban scale, despite the formality
of certain elements, the layout of these cities is not
Above: Exhibit 12

being the most metropolitan city in the group. I have
known about Nairobi since I was a child and heard
my parents discussing its high buildings and their
contribution to ‘the skyline of Africa’. At a later date,
the grid of streets at its heart became even more
dense, with the Aga Khan adding to the buildings of
the 1960s and 1970s that impressed my parents. But
as you move away from the centre the suburbs roll
out over the surrounding plateau and it becomes a
landscape city where the vegetation is dominant.
In all the cities in this region, the landscape is
significant for the way in which it allows different
types of architectural expression to sit comfortably
side by side. In Nairobi, for instance, there are
examples of Victorian, Sikh and Hindu architecture,
and you have the modernism of different periods, as
well as the postmodernism of the Aga Khan’s circular
towers. These cities all have the capacity to absorb
many different expressions without any sense of
conflict. This is significant in view of their relative
isolation, compared with West Africa, for instance,
where the capitals are not that far apart.
Travelling to Addis Ababa, you fly across a vast
landscape with very little physical development,
until you rise up to the plateau where Addis stands
and realize just how unique its location is. So the
distances people may have travelled to reach these
cities, and the baggage they bring, is part of their
culture and is reflected in the architecture. Instead
of the hybridization that you find in the Sahel, you
have singular architectural statements standing next
to one another. Hybridization is not necessary here
as it is included in the composition as a whole.
Postscript
My overview of Africa’s capitals is based on visiting
themandmakingaphotographicrecordofthepublic,
commercial and residential architecture. In the book
we present a selection of images showing the salient
characteristics of each building type on a city-by-
city basis. Putting the cities in groups, according to
the region in which they are located, allowed us to
complete the final step of the process: to analyse
the characteristics of the cities in a single region and
identify the features they share in common.
When I was a child, my family lived in Dar es Salaam,
Nairobi and Accra, and we visited other places such
as Cairo. This experience left me with vivid memories,
but I was unable to return to Africa on a regular
basis until after I had completed my architectural
studies in London. Revisiting the places I had known
previously gave me a desire to understand this aspect
of my heritage in more depth, and make my findings
available to other people.
I was curious to understand what had been built and
whether it came from expedience, a relationship
to colonial power, economics, self-belief or self-
identity. I have tried to reexamine familiar tropes
and typologies and, by documenting the fifty-three
capitals, to provide a nuanced view of building
activity across Africa. Although architecture can
absorb ideas and influences from many sources,
African architecture is ultimately very specific. It has
a particular power and influence that organizes more
than a billion people and contributes to their psyche,
their identity, and the way they inhabit the city today.
Although architecture
can absorb ideas
and influences
from many sources,
African architecture is
ultimately very specific.
It has a particular power
and influence that
organizes more than
a billion people and
contributes to their
psyche, their identity,
and the way they
inhabit the city today.
Above: David Adjaye

Welcome to the new ArchiAfrika magazine, which is
a reflection of our Secretariat’s move to Ghana.
ArchiAfrika, now
based in Accra plans
to engage in the’
built and cultural
space’ on many
levels and listen to
our constituency
both in the
diaspora and on the
continent.
We will build on the hard work done by the founders
of ArchiAfrika and our partners over the last 10 years.
As chairman of ArchiAfrika and a fan of Africa, I want
to- in my own small way- contribute to changing
Africa through my work and deeds.
I introduce the iconic mud hut as a perfect metaphor
about how we (as designers and creative people)
should engage with contemporary Africa on all
levels. The mud hut represents the vernacular and
the functional and certainly all the good principles
of contextual sustainable architecture, informed by
culture in all its dynamism.
The mud hut does not try too hard and is quite
proud of its pedigree, the DNA of a tropical structure
which has not evolved for centuries. Why have we
not re-interpreted it organically over time? Do we
not see how wrong it is to disown what is rightfully
ours? The erasure of the ‘mud hut’ in contemporary
architectural and cultural discourse exemplifies what
is so wrong about aspects of Africa’s development.
As with all narratives, new meanings must be derived
from new context. This requires a lot of hard work
WHY HAVE WE
ABANDONED
THE MUD
HUT?
Joe Osae Addo
Chairman, ArchiAfrika
CHAIRMAN’S
CORNER
inspiration
and research and coming to terms with who we are
and what our aspirations are.
For me personally that journey has begun and to
understand the’ mud hut’ is to de-construct it and
examine its parts and then hopefully re-construct it.
It needs to be holistic and thorough. This can only
be achieved through soul searching, research and
then implementation. The ‘mud hut’ may have been
abandoned but not forgotten.
How do we make the mud hut relevant again? A
woman called Gladys Ayoma in Tamale showed me
how. Like all educated Moshi women, Gladys Ayoma
is quite opinionated and loves to drink with men.
When I first met her she was arguing with the head
of BNI (our equivalent of CIA), head of cultural affairs,
head accountant and another gentleman at the local
‘drinking spot’ next to the police grounds, Tamale,
Northern Ghana. It was the week before Ghana’s
50th Anniversary, and we were in a rather reflective
mood about where we are as a nation. Clearly she
was a highly regarded member of this drinking clique,
and I was really impressed with her quiet strength.
Her slow speech pattern belies her utter conviction
on subjects ranging from politics, highly charged in
Tamale in particular, ethnicity and women’s issues. It
was very difficult to determine who her partner was
amongst the group, she exhibited unique flirtation
skills that made each of the men feel important but
with a clear sense of established and understood
boundaries. This was the environment in which,
I, a total stranger to the group, found myself that
afternoon. My mission was to meet Mr. Ayamgba,
head of the cultural center, about the upcoming film
festival that we were organizing.
I was enthralled and fascinated by Gladys’ passion
for her work as a teacher. On learning of my role in
the beautification of the city, after being described
by Mr. BNI as being a ‘big man’ in Tamale working
with the mayor and city officials in that capacity, she
Above: A Village on the shores of Lake Chad
Above Photograph by Joe Osae Addo

challenged me to come and visit her school. ‘You
will not believe that as we spend billions of cedis on
celebrating independence, my pupils are sitting in
wooden shacks with dirt as a floor in the middle of
Tamale. Mr. Joe, this is really shocking and you must
get your important friends to come and see this’, she
said, in the most seductive angry tone I have ever
heard. Suddenly I was hooked. I needed to know
more. Could this really be true? She was convincing
and I promised her that indeed I would visit the
school early the next day before I left for Accra.
“Mr. Joe, we need accommodation in Tamale’, she
quips. ‘The government is building all these hostels
for the CAF games (African Soccer Championships)
nextyear,andtheyareallapartments.Wecannotlive
in apartments, it will never work!’ This was emphatic
and it got me thinking about my own positions on
high density housing for Ghana. She may be on to
something I thought. ‘Look, none of the banks or
private developers is thinking about us here. Could
you imagine if housing was developed affordably
for people like me? There is a huge demand for
something simple and low maintenance based
around how we traditionally live here. It will work if
people can afford it!’
This comment elicited the first unified position on
any subject, from the men. The blame game then
begun in earnest with developers and politicians
taking the biggest hit. Architects were dismissed
outright as not relevant in this discussion since they
had shirked their responsibility to be innovative and
provide product for the masses. I was not going to
be drawn into defending anything or anyone. I was
ambushed but really felt at peace. The inevitable
happened. “Mr. Joe, why don’t you do something
about this in Tamale?” Gladys’ big eyes appeared
larger with a glint of mischief in them. I suddenly felt
betrayed and my defensive mechanism was about
to be deployed when Mr. Ayamgba chimed in about
buying another round.
Gladys described her needs and program for the
house simply as ‘a place where I can afford, add to
as her income increased, low maintenance, with
good natural ventilation and cooling properties that
evoke the way she lived as a child. I had met my
‘architectural soul mate in Tamale of all places’ and
I promised to show her a sketch on my return from
Princeton University. Her parting words were ‘Mr.
Joe, why have we abandoned the mud hut?’
We need a collective passion to support one another
and promote what is relevant and developed by us.
I stress on the
word ‘collective’,
because with our
limited resources
we need to evolve
and embrace how
we were surviving,
through communal
effort and
dedication.
- Wherearethethinktanksandresearchinstitutions?
- Why are we not establishing and supporting their
endeavors?
- Why are we not moving from talk shops to
workshops that develop product?
- Why are we not selecting talent and sharing ideas
through competitions?
This is the challenge I extend to all of us. ArchiAfrika
is very keen to engage with ALL to highlight the role
of Creativity in Africa’s development agenda.
Regards,
Joe Osae Addo
Chairman, ArchiAfrika Foundation
The mud hut represents
the vernacular and the
functional and certainly
all the good principles of
contextual sustainable
architecture, informed
by culture in all its
dynamism.
Above: Sketch by Joe Osae Addo

Question 1: How do the creative fields of
architecture, art, music and design play a role in the
development of Africa?
Architecture is perhaps the profession that in
many ways most mirrors, and determines the way
we live. As an art it responds to its context, and
as a profession it seeks to shape it. This delicate
interplay of responding and shaping is perhaps most
important in African Architecture as we continue to
evolve to a more urbanized society. Urbanization
and westernization juxtaposed with the traditional
african way of living and climate, overlaid with
energy demands and availability, security etc make
for a very interesting discourse on the future of
African architecture.
Seeking out a set of fundamentals that embrace the
finebalanceasoutlinedabove,thatpromoteshealthy
living, is sustainable, affordable and replicable is one
of the causes that we as a foundation have chosen
to support. With contextualized and progressive
architecture, we can begin to make further inroads
into improved access to housing, healthcare,
community development and education.
Question 2: Are you and your wife pan-Africanists?
Njide and I are, and remain deep pan- Africanists. Our
travels and our work has taken us across Africa. We
have developed deep friendships and partnerships
across the continent. It is in our work and our travels
that we have come to learn that the things that divide
us are really inconsequential compared to the things
that bind us together in unity. We have also come to
learn increasingly, that the solution to Africa’s issues
lies within Africa, and Africans. The first step is in
breaking down the barriers that enable commerce,
culture and entertainment to flow freely across the
continent. To enable trade between African borders,
to recognize the artificiality of our boundaries, and
to work with the diversity of talent of all Africans. In
our work, we see this glass as half-full....
Question 3: Your foundation, the Amaechi & Njide
Ndili Family Foundation, was a major supporter
of the recent ArchiAfrika Educational Network
conference in Accra. How does the linking of
architectural schools in Africa help the mission of
your foundation?
Linking architecture schools and bringing them
together to discuss issues relating to the teaching
and practice of architecture in Africa certainly fits
well within the mission, vision and goals of the
Amaechi & Njide Ndili Family Foundation. Firstly,
it fits the “unifying and integration” theme of the
Foundation, especially in an area as vital to the
lives of Africans as the built environment. Secondly,
we believe that through this discourse, perhaps
a unifying language of African Architecture will
emerge that enables practitioners to tap into to and
improve their understanding of providing contextual
sustainabledevelopmentforthecontinent,especially
in areas of affordable housing for instance, and
thereby improving access to economic opportunity
and preventative healthcare.
A discussion on the foundations of the African
architecture curriculum is the beginning of this
process. If we can collectively shape the thinking of
the students to see the profession in a much wider
context, while they are still in school, then half the
job might have been done.
Question 4: How can ArchiAfrika promote African
architecture and design on the global scene?
Understanding African Architecture, its uniqueness
etc is a first step towards that.
Programs that allow for further education, visiting
scholarships, exhibitions, interactions between
African Architects and the rest of the world, student
competitions, and broadening of our horizons would
certainly help.
We at the Amaechi & Njide Family Foundation, in
collaboration with ArchiAfrika and the Aga Khan
Foundation, remain deeply committed to this
process.
Question 5: Your foundation is a great supporter
of ArchiAfrika Accra in its move to Accra. We thank
you for this commitment to our common cause. Can
you describe for our readers benefit, the history
and goals of your foundation?
The Amaechi & Njide Ndili Family Foundation was
formed in 2010 by Amaechi and Njide Ndili on
the back of some of the business successes of the
Lionstone Group and Golden Tulip West Africa, which
Amaechi and Njide founded in 2004. The Foundation
has offices in Lagos, Nigeria.
The Foundation’s goals broadly speaking encompass
the following:
- Fostering, enabling and sustaining the vision of a
united and progressive Africa.
- Driving and deploying resources towards effective
ideas that support the unity and integration of Africa
and Africans through the common language of Arts,
Culture, Architecture, Discourse, Music, Sports etc.
- Promoting Economic Opportunity and Sustainable
Development.
- Improving the lives of Africans in Africa through
improvedaccesstoeducation,healthcare,promoting
economicopportunityandsustainabledevelopment.
We do this by fostering partnerships, providing
advice, mobilizing and channeling resources towards
effective ideas and seeking collaborative solutions.
Our mission is to inspire, connect and empower a
community of Africans to forge solutions to Africa’s
most pressing by focusing our efforts in the following
ways:
1. Forging partnerships and collaborative efforts
2. Helping successful solutions achieve scale and
replicability
3. Promoting innovative ideas that help remove
barriers to access to a better life
4. Promoting economic opportunity
In this we follow 4 Core Values, namely – (1)
Optimism -- We remain impatient optimists, and act
as catalysts and tenacious converts to a vision of a
better, more unified Africa, (2) Collaborators -- We
believe our ability to achieve impact is greater when
we work collaboratively with others (3) Rigor -- We
pursue our mission with the same rigor we apply to
business in insisting that our efforts yield tangible
and positive results (4) Innovations -- we believe
our efforts should be innovative in solving often
intractable problems.
AN
Interview
with
Amaechi
Ndili
By Tuuli Saarela
Organizations such
as ArchiAfrika are
in a unique position
to promote African
Architecture on a
global scale
Above: Amaechi Ndili - Director (Archi Afrika
Accra) and AA Board members

Kotoka Airport, 3 November 2012, 21:39hrs. – I
stepped on the shuttle to KL589. Few hours earlier,
we wrapped up our last hand over meeting in a
nice office space with fast internet, a fresh orange
coloured wall, bamboo screening and some very
dedicated people in it; Tuuli, Emefa, Dahlia and of
course Joe. It felt good. It felt like it was all going to
continue. Not as before, but even better.
When I write this, I have no clue how the newsletter
will look like, but it probably will all look different.
The website, the newsletter, the logo. Texts will be
different, most likely better. Subjects of articles,
themes, focuses, it will all change. Beautiful. I hope
it will still change many times in the future. Other
people will come and take over again and again. As
long as there is a reason for ArchiAfrika to sustain.
And why shouldn’t that be? More than ever,
ArchiAfrika connects people on and beyond the
continent that care about urban and rural Africa. Not
only about buildings, styles and forms, but people
take a central role in this. And with people comes
culture, art, food, music, … life. ArchiAfrika is driven
by and connecting people that see quality and
opportunity, that are able to filter and can identify
the basis for a sustainable future. It is unthinkable
that this group is not going to grow. It is not only nice
to think that way, it is essential.
I have learned a lot over the last 12 years. From an
architect who is object focused, I started to recognise
the other values that can be found in the African
landscape, urban or rural. Our first fascinations
were the modernist monuments erected to show
how ready the new nations were for conquering the
world in the 50s and 60s. Buildings that were hardly
recognised as such, while the quality was so great.
This fascination does not go, but is enriched with
so many other. Here in Zanzibar, where I am now,
the hidden stories that emerge, when talking with
people in an area that many circle instead of enter,
speak of richness. A richness that you can build on,
also literally.
We all seem to think that we enter a digital age.
But every conference in ArchiAfrika’s history gave a
boost to the network. Personal interactions were the
basis for another 2 years of growing collaboration
between various partners, resulting in a continuing
growing family. However ArchiAfrika cannot sustain
without the digital net. The perhaps most important
step ArchiAfrika has made since its start is the wired
message to the current board members, 3 years
ago: are you ready to make the swap from partner
to board member: from outside to within? There
was no single hesitation in their answers. And that,
while the organisation never really had money, being
involved would mean struggling to find money for
activities all the time.
Now ArchiAfrika is where it belongs. I am sure that it
keeps connecting all the beautiful people that I met
over the years and will expand way beyond. It was
especially great to work with the future of Africa:
the students and just graduated architects that I
met at workshops, at conferences, in writing. Their
eagerness to make a difference gives hope and a
trust that Africa has great potential.
I will remain part of this, my role is not over yet. As
the Secretary of the Board, but also as an individual
and African Architecture Matters will remain a
partner in the ArchiAfrika field as well. But there, at
the doorstep of the plane back to Amsterdam, I felt
great trust in the AAAccra team; they were ready to
take over all the hard work that we have been doing
since 2000. I offered my help for any support they
would need in the future, but I think that there will
not be many knocks on the door. ArchiAfrika, have a
safe flight with AAAccra!
Moving
from
Amsterdam
to Accra
Berend van der Lans
Secretary of the Board
Left: Berend van der Lans at Brazil House in Accra
Courtesy Steve Lewis
Below: Participants of the first ArchiAfrika
conference in Dar es Salaam, July 2005; ‘Modern
Architecture in East Africa around Independence’.
Courtesy Berend van der Lans

Now ArchiAfrika
is where it
belongs. I am
sure that it keeps
connecting all
the beautiful
people that I
met over the
years and will
expand way
beyond.
Above: African Architecture Matters in Ng’ambo,
December 2012.
Above Right: The jury of the ‘Blueprints of Para-
dise’ competition in October 2010 with (top left to
right: me, Siebe Rossel, Lesley Lokko, Femke van
Zeijl, Manthia Diawara, bottom left to right: Belinda
van Buiten, Antoni Folkers, Ineke Hubner (director
Afrika Museum), Joe.
Below Right: Berend and Antoni with Subira
Mchumo, president of the Architects Association of
Tanzania during the first conference.
Photos courtesy of Berend van der Lans

ACCRA
RECOLLECTION OF A CITY
Nat Nunoo Amartefio
Architect, Historian & Former Mayor of Accra
After years of involvement in national affairs, my
mother retired to her beloved garden to tend to her
flowers and grow her vegetables. She scrupulously
resisted contact with the world outside her walls
and rarely ventured into the city. She died at 82.
Two weeks before her death, she surprised me by
proposing a car ride into Accra. I was delighted at
the opportunity to revisit and share her favorite
corners of a city that we both loved passionately.
The following day was a Sunday and the traffic in
the city was light. We set out after mid afternoon.
This guaranteed us a couple of hours of sunlight. It
became clear she had no destination in mind. We
drove carefully around what I considered to be her
favorite neighborhoods’. Neither of us spoke much.
We simply enjoyed passing through streets that
greeted us with bouquets of memories. At the end
of an hour she started to tire so we concluded the
tour. The only observation she made was that cities
are unfaithful. As you grow older they betray your
memories. That insight reoccurs to me often these
days as I edge closer to her age.
I spent my early years at Adabraka. It was a
community where I knew everybody. It teemed with
various relatives, school mates, and inaccessible
first loves. There were few cars and my friends
and I scarcely noticed their absence. We walked
practically everywhere. We roamed from Adabraka
to Lartebiokoshie, Jamestown, Ridge and other parts
of the metropolis. We walked to the Opera Cinema,
the Orion Cinema, the Apollo Theatre and the
Metropole club. We absorbed the city through the
soles of our feet and with all our five senses. Accra
was a snug space in which we fitted very comfortably.
Do you remember the fragrance of fresh, oven baked
bread at Mary villas in Jamestown? Or the aroma
of Ma-Fante’s kelewele at the bus stops at Adabraka
Atukpia? Who recalls Acguaye Park at Agblogbloshie
where we watched titanic football battles between
Government boys’ school and Methodist boy’s
middle school? Klutei Robertson, our hero and later
a Commonwealth boxing champion, played in that
memorable game. That was our Accra in the 50’s.
That Accra still exists but my mother was right. Both
the city and I have been transformed by time. My
eyes are getting dimmer and I find it increasingly
difficult to recognize the city where I grow up.
In the seventies my Accra changed. I acquired a
car. Days became faster and distances shrank as if
by magic. Blocks from the cities’ opposite corners
folded into each other as rapidly and as casually as
I could drive. Accra became banks and construction
sites and restaurants where we took impressionable
young girls and potential foreign partners. Do you
remember the incomparable Palm Court? It was not
the first Chinese restaurant in the city but it was the
one that gave my generation a glimpse of the good
life. Where is it now? Gone. Just the shell remains.
Memory betrayed!
These days my Accra defies gravity. Every week it
grows bigger by gobbling up another remote village.
Dangerous highways full of anxious drivers crisscross
it. Sedate old Ridge, Cantonment, and Adabraka are
like war zones, full of ghosts of buildings past and
with impatient new ones struggling for the sky. A
new Accra is being created in front of our delighted
eyes. A futuristic city of high towers built for children
weaned on video games. They will never play the
street football we called ‘gutter to gutter’, and who
will never walk anywhere. Will they ever love the city
the way we did? This Accra more and more mimics
New York, London and Abidjan. It is becoming the
city on their video game screens.
I love the prospect of this new metropolis. I am
excited every time I see another building erupt from
it soil. However I keep remembering the lesson my
mother taught me. I will take this Accra on its own
unblinking terms. Maybe I am too old to embrace
fresh memories. I don’t mind, I believe I am finally
at peace with my city.
Above: Nat Amartefio provides architectural and
historical tours of Accra in his Own Words
Photos courtesy of Kajsa Hallberg-Adu

I love the prospect of
this new metropolis.
I am excited every
time I see another
building erupt from it
soil. However I keep
remembering the lesson
my mother taught me.
I will take this Accra
on its own unblinking
terms. Maybe I am too
old to embrace fresh
memories. I don’t mind,
I believe I am finally at
peace with my city.

“GARGANTuAN”
URBANISATION
PERSONAL REFLECTIONS ON
CHANGING ACCRA THROUGH
RURAL/URBAN MIGRATIONS

The Story of
Adedainkpo in Old
Accra
By Gilbert Nii-Okai Addy
Adedainkpo in Old Accra - not many Ghanaians
would know this today - was for over one hundred
and fifty years, from the early 1800s to perhaps the
1950s, where nearly anyone who was anyone among
the native African elite in the Gold Coast lived. It was
for that entire period the equivalent of East Legon in
the scheme of the Accra of today.
One may be able to catch a glimpse of this glorious
history by the scale of most of the now sadly
crumbling grand houses there. The houses were
even bigger in some parts of Korle Wokon further
down Hansen Road from the Wesley Methodist
Church and towards the old UTC Katamanto area.
Housing for most people in nearly all of the
colonial Gold Coast during would have been most
rudimentary - mud huts, a few wooden or concrete
houses or simple at best.
Adedainkpo was
where most of
the educated elite
of Accra and the
Gold Coast lived
and the entire
area, before the
later development
of Adabraka and
Kaneshie, was the
economic, social
and cultural heart
of Accra.
In my primary school in Accra in the 1960s, although
many if not most of the Ghanaian pupils there and
then could trace their origins to Adedainkpo, I was
the only one who physically lived there because I
lived with my grandmother as my own parents were
out of Ghana for much of that time. As such I got to
know the area very intimately.
Now what most of my friends and colleagues knew
as my grandmother’s house was and still is in fact
not her house at all but her great grandparents
house. Yes, the house was originally owned by my
grandmother’s own great grandparents. So I actually
grew up in a family house in which I was in fact
something like a sixth or even seventh generation
resident, which coming to think of, is actually quite
interesting. My roots in the area go back several
generations.
Now what, one may ask, is the import of all this?
Inner-City Urban Decline
and Decay
– the Story of Adedainkpo and Ngleshie/
Jamestown
Well, it is largely unknown that most of the original
Old Accra families moved out of Old Accra a long
time ago with the development of new areas like
Adabraka and later Kaneshie and that Old Accra
became the place for new migrants to Accra who
were not Ga people. Ironically these parts of old
Accra are still seen and often described as “Ga areas“
of Accra.
Now, even back when I was a schoolboy living with
my Grandma, because of decades of migration from
other parts of Ghana which accelerated after the
second world war through the growing economy
and independence in the 1950s, the vast majority
of people living in Old Accra -Adedainkpo, Korle
Wokon, Swalaba, Akoto Lante, Ngleshie/Jamestown,
Bukom - were in fact not Ga people at all -at least
not originally, because most of the original Ga people
had moved out!
Above: Adedainkpo FCA Public Square
Courtesy Tuuli Saarela

like much of Harlem in New York City, which was
historically a middle class area and center of
education,theartsandculturegenerally,Adedainkpo
has over the decades become a low rent, sadly run-
down and decaying melting pot of various peoples
of various ethnicities who invariably lose touch with
their places of origin and end up adopting Ga identity
and ultimately are even referred to blithely by others
as Ga.
Evolving Social Identities
This brings me to the conflation and confusion
of ethnicity with identity. Especially in Accra,
due to the issues I have discussed above, a lot
of people are Ga by identity and not necessarily
Ga by ethnicity. I earn my living working with
facts and figures and I know this issue has not
been researched (I would happily research it if I
would be paid to) but I would “guesstimate” that
people who are Ga by identity vastly outnumber
those who are Ga by ethnicity. There are several
conceptual and practical issues concerning the
definition and quantification of identity groups but
I will leave those issues for some other time. I am
however amazed by the number of people I meet
in Ghana and elsewhere who claim to be Ga but
who, on getting to know them, realize that they
only adopted a Ga identity fairly recently- say a
generation or two ago- if even that.
A lot of “Ga” people in Old Accra today, probably the
vast majority, have non-Ga origins. Some adopt Ga
names while others keep their original ones. A good
friend of mine who is an authority on cultural issues,
tells me he knows a lady of clear non-Ga origin who
is proudly called “Okailey“ (after the neighborhood
of Okaishie) and self-identifies as Ga. Her birth in
Okaishie is basis of her name! Good for her and for
mankind! Who can take her self-identity away from
her or would dare try to?
The original Ga people may go back there for family
social events like funerals and birth ceremonies but
generally do not live there. There is an interesting
I bought a copy some years ago in Accra. The book
shows that as recently as the early 1960s, before
the founding of the University of Ghana Medical
School, the vast majority of medical doctors in all of
Ghana - not just Accra - were people with origins in
Adedainkpo and Osu.
There was a huge house near my Grandma’s family
house. This used to be referred to as the Fante house
because the original owner and residents were
Fante. Today- a few generations down the line- most
of the original owner’s scattered descendants would
almost certainly describe themselves as Ga.
In fact, back in the late 1960s and early 1970s (now
some forty to fifty years ago!) walking up from my
home at Adedainkpo at the bottom of Asafoatse
Nettey Road up to the Palladium Cinema and the
Wesley Methodist Church and on to Swalaba and
the Old Central Post Office, one would hear people
speaking Ga, but one could also be sure that the
vast majority of them, had only recently, that is in a
generation or two, become Ga in terms of identity
and culture.
Now fast forward to today 2012. I go to Adedainkpo
all the time when in Accra because of my obvious
roots there and it is very obvious that there are
even fewer original Ga people living there now.
Adedainkpo was the first residential development
away from Jamestown/Ngleshie, the original British
Accra. The two areas are contiguous and as Accra
has grown and expanded are probably conflated into
one today.Bruce Road is at the heart of Adedainkpo
and Ngleshie/James Town, alongside others like
BannermanRoadorHansenRoadonwhichissituated
the iconic Wesley Methodist Church opposite the
Palladium Cinema. The area also had the famous
“London Market,” not surprising for James Town (the
Ga name “Ngleshie” is really the local pronunciation
of the word “English”) and also Royal School and
Royal Park that was later transformed into the James
Town Police Station.
The families who lived on Bruce Road and on nearby
streets in Adedainkpo included the following:
- Addy, Akiwunmi, Amarteifio
- Baddoo, Bannerman, Biney, Blavo, Brown, Bruce,
Brew, Bulley, Bruce Konuah,
- Chinery, Crabbe, Clegg,
- Heward Mills, Hutton-Mills,
- Mills, Mould
- Neequaye, Nanka-Bruce
- Ofosu-Amaah
- Quartey Papafio,
- Ribeiro,
- Sackeyfio
- Tagoe, Thompson,
- Vanderpuije,
- Torto, and others.
These families and Adedainkpo itself, as a suburb
of Ngleshie/Jamestown, purely by accident of
history and geography, produced most of the first
teachers, clergymen, doctors, lawyers, judges and
many of the other professional and skilled people
who were instrumental in transformation of the
Gold Coast to modern Ghana. From this perspective,
one could argue that far too much emphasis is given
to politicians and politics in the historical narrative
about modern Ghana and there has always been
more to life in Ghana than just politics.
Interestingly enough, I happen to be a direct
descendant on my maternal grandmother’s side, of
the very first Bruce family in Accra. A lot of people
from all over Ghana - Fante, Twi, Ewe, Northern
Ghanaian, Nigeria - have been moving into the area
for decades and over the course of this period of fifty
to a hundred years what was historically the most
affluent and best educated part of Accra and Ghana
has in many ways lost its original ethnic character
in favor of a socio-economic class character. Rather
Top: Wesley Methodist Church, Adedainkpo, Cen-
tenary 1961.
Above: Wesley Methodist Chruch, Adedainkpo.
Photos courtesy of Gilbert Nii-Okai Addy

Many northern Ghanaians and Ewe people around
Ayalolo, Korle Wokon and other parts of the area,
in the modern Odododiodoo electoral constituency
have become Ga by identity chiefly because they
have lost touch with much of the original ethnic
cultures of their forebears.
It is the same with a lot of Akan Twi and Fante people.
Historically many Akan people have become Ga
over generations. Surnames like Asante, Prempeh,
Acheampong, Osei are in fact fairly common among
the Ga people. That is perhaps nothing new. What
is definitely new is the increasing incidence of
interesting and even bizarre hybridised Ga-Akan
names reflecting the fact that increasingly many
people are becoming Ga by identity but not ethnicity.
I generally don’t do Facebook though I do have an
account but, possibly because of the “Nii” in my
name Nii-Okai, I get many requests from people who
want to be friends with me on Facebook with names
like: Nii Owusu, Nii Boakye, Nii Amposah, Nii Atakora.
In fact in this day of instant google searches, if you
have a minute to spare just try googling the name
prefix “Nii” with any Akan name you can think of and
I would bet that you would find someone with that
name on the net – on either Facebook or Linkedin or
elsewhere.
Urban Decline,
Regeneration and
Development
Sadly there a tendency to a decline in fortunes of
any city area, especially what becomes known as
the inner city. People move out to new areas for
various reasons, and new people move in. The old
Adedainkpo and Ngleshie/Jamestown today, in
line with the evolving socio-economic dynamics of
Accra, have both declined into pale and somewhat
sorry shadows of their former glorious selves. Most
of this former heart of Accra has seen tremendous
urban decay, a decline in economic and educational
opportunities and a growth in poverty.
This decline cannot be resolved by today’s local
residents on their own as access to resources,
education and employment opportunities are very
limited. There must be a joint effort by all including
government to develop these neighborhoods in the
form of appropriate economic and social policies
and programs.
Worldwide, such programs are usually formulated
and implemented under varying nomenclatures
such as: Regeneration, Urban Renewal, Community
Development, Neighborhood Restoration. The
important issue is that such programs, in order
to succeed, must be partnerships between the
government, the community and critically, the
private sector which is the best engine for much
needed employment creation.
There is little point in developing new residential
areas in a city like Accra without the development
of cultures and mechanisms for maintenance since
the new areas will also, in a matter of time, fall into a
similar state of disrepair and decay.
With the inexorable growth in urban migration from
the rural areas to Accra, if the culture of maintenance
and renewal is not instilled, most if not all of Accra,
could end up as one giant slum. We are already
seeing signs of this in Accra and other towns and
cities in Ghana and other growing cities in Africa.
This issue is in fact multidimensional with aspects
such as urban development economic, social
aspects. Essentially it is about housing, families,
education,jobs,health,environmentalmanagement,
social cohesion and all the other challenges facing
modern Ghana. Addressing these issues will require
a concerted multidisciplinary approach entailing
the collaboration of the local residents as key
stakeholders with business, government and experts
such as urban planners, economists, educationists,
small business enterprise development specialists
and vocational trainers.
The best time to act is now!
Above: Old Accra Central Post office.
Above Right: Wesley Methodist Church 1993 - with
Grandma and wife Gillian.
Right: Author with Grandma and two sons, August
2005.
Photos courtesy of Gilbert Nii-Okai Addy
With the inexorable
growth in urban migration
from the rural areas to
Accra, if the culture of
maintenance and renewal
is not instilled, most if not
all of Accra, could end up
as one giant slum.

The dictionary definition of the word “gargantuan”
that has recently become enormously popular in
Ghana and in “Ghenglish” (Ghanaian English) is
“extremely large or massive.” Related words or
synonyms could be any among the following: giant,
gigantic, jumbo, elephantine, colossal and perhaps
even gargantuan itself!
Somelexicographersandlinguiststhinkthattheword
“gargantuan” should only be used to describe things
connected with food in such ways as “a gargantuan
meal”, “a gargantuan appetite“ and perhaps even “a
gargantuan potbelly,” unfortunately and impolitely
for some people!
The origins of the word are acknowledged to be from
Gargantua the large-mouthed giant in the collection
of five novels by the French Renaissance author
François Rabelais (1494-1553). It is supposedly
derived from the Latin “garganta” which means
“gullet“ or “throat“. Thanks to my being among the
very last generation of Ghanaians to have studied
Latin at Adisadel, I can confidently though modestly
claim to know that this is the same Latin root as in
the word “gargle” in the English language which
many would be familiar with. After all who has not
ever had to “gargle”?
I am not entirely sure how the word “gargantuan”
managed to creep into the ever-evolving “Ghenglish”
or Ghanaian English. It was probably first used by
some public figure such as a politician. A friend
tells me that the trajectory of the word’s entry into
Ghenglish is rather like that of the word “nefarious”
which he recalls was first used publicly by former
President Jerry Rawlings at his trial in 1979 when he
referred to the “nefarious” activities of “kalabule”
traders and business people who he believed had
brought about the dire economic problems of the
time and especially the phenomenon of “essential
commodities” which were always in demand but
never in supply.
For some years, as I myself can remember and attest,
the word “nefarious”, reigned supreme in Ghana’s
language and literature. It seemed to creep up nearly
everywhere in newspaper articles and in everyday
speech. Its use however seems to have run its course
these days and it is quite some time now since I last
read about any “nefarious activities“ by any person
or group of persons in Ghana. Perhaps that in itself is
a sign of progress - economic, linguistic and literary
progress.
The same fate may await the current use of the word
“gargantuan,” with seemingly reckless abandon,
in Ghana. Any new word starts off as some sort of
fashionable novelty. It then becomes quite ordinary
and pedestrian and, finally, its use eventually
becomes boring if not positively irritating!
As such, rather like “ essential commodities” and
“nefarious” one can expect over time, something
like a gradual and progressive descent of the
word “gargantuan” into some kind of gargantuan
obsolescence in Ghenglish and in Ghana.
That again may be a sign of welcome progress.
Indeed progress of the gargantuan kind!
GARGANTUAN !
Linguistic Peregrinations of Gilbert Addy
The dictionary definition
of the word “gargantuan”
that has recently
become enormously
popular in Ghana and in
“Ghenglish” (Ghanaian
English) is “extremely
large or massive.”
Related words or
synonyms could be any
among the following:
giant, gigantic, jumbo,
elephantine, colossal and
perhaps even gargantuan
itself!

Fundamental social and cultural relations are about
exchange. As we circulate—move through space—
we dispense and take in knowledge, information, and
sensations from the world. Modernity has always
produced cross-cultural exchanges—hybridized
conditions of language, cuisine, art, buildings, and
even plant matter.
In his catalogue of the art, architecture, and culture
of the postcolonial period, provocatively entitled The
Short Century, curator and theorist Okwui Enwezor
offers the following observation:
It may be productive to look closely at how African
modernism accomplishes its modernity. To begin
with, this modernism is not founded on an ideology
of the universal, nor is it based on the recognition
and assimilation of an autonomous European
modernism, or on the continuity of the epistemic
field of artistic territorialization achieved and
consecrated by the colonial project.
We decided to take up Enwezor’s charge and look
closely at “African Modernism,” more specifically
the modern architecture of Ghana. What were the
stories of modernity to be learned from looking at
these works and their context? Were there stories
of other modernisms to be heard? As outsiders we
asked ourselves, rather than look what if we listened
instead?
In 2008 we traveled to Ghana to document
the architecture that is referred to as “Tropical
Modernism.” Our trip was motivated by a desire to
see how these buildings had fared in the half century
since their construction, and to explore how they
functioned in today’s increasingly urbanized and
globalized contexts.
From our research and project, we believe it may be
useful to think more critically about the relationship
of architects and architecture to changing the
conditions of the local in new and challenging ways.
It is clear that relationship of colonizer to colonized
no longer exists as it did at the time of Tropical
Modernism’s emergence, although unequal power
relations of wealth and ethnic/racial identity persist
in these locations. But we might also consider how
the African continent is still viewed by outsiders (and
many who originate there) as a place of conquest
whether for human resources or natural resources.
Therefore there can be no easy transcendence of
interior and exterior boundaries. Whatever the
purposes of those outsider relationships to parts of
the African continent whether in search of wealth or
with more “liberal aspirations” of helping those less
fortunate, the relationship can still be one sided and
an uneven.
Today, local cultures presumably operate in all
sorts of contexts that are both immediate to their
surroundings and transnational in their breadth,
these are the conditions we live in. These are
positive developments in cultural influence, both
in terms of power and direction. And it is no longer
as one way, as it was perceived during the colonial
period, but instead these cultural relationships are
refracted across boundaries with multiple influences
and possibilities. These affects can potentially be felt
not just in Accra, Kumasi, Lagos, Jo’burg, or Cairo,
but relayed back to London, New York, Beijing, or
Sao Paolo.
LISTENING THERE
Scenes from Ghana
Mabel O. Wilson, New York City
Peter Tolkin, Los Angeles
Above: Black Star Square, also know as
Independence Square, built to commemorate
independence from colonial rule, Accra, 1961
Architect James Cubitt and Partners.
Right: Marketplace in central Accra, proposed
site of new city hall.
Below Right: Kejetia Central Market, Kumasi.
Photos courtesy of Mabel Wilson

Above: American Embassy, decommissioned and
modified, it now houses the Ministry of Women
and Children’s Affairs, Accra, Architect: Harry
Weese & Associates, 1956.
Right: Courtyard, Prempeh College, Kumasi,
Architect: Fry, Drew, and Associates, 1955-54.
Below Right: Architect’s private residence, Accra,
Architect: Kenneth Scott Associates, 1961.
Photos courtesy of Mabel Wilson
...To begin with, this
modernism is not
founded on an ideology
of the universal,
nor is it based on
the recognition and
assimilation of an
autonomous European
modernism, or on
the continuity of the
epistemic field of
artistic territorialization
achieved and
consecrated by the
colonial project.

During the drafting of the Constitution, the
National Commission for Democracy agreed that
creativity should be an integral part of the national
development agenda:
“The State shall take all
necessary steps to establish
a sound and healthy
economy by affording
ample opportunity for
individual initiative and
creativity in economic
activities and fostering
an enabling environment
for a pronounced role
of the private sector in
the economy, while at
the same time ensuring
that individuals bear
their fair share of social
responsibilities to
contribute to the overall
development of the
country.”
-Report of the Committee of Experts on Proposals for
a Draft Constitution of Ghana, 1991.
Inthiselectionseason,thediscourseonCULTUREasa
tool for change is strikingly absent. This conversation
attempts to discuss the role that CULTURE could and
should play in our contemporary experiences as
Ghana undergoes tremendous economic, social and
political change. We assembled a group of diverse
and distinguished thinkers who discussed the politics
of change without being political and the role of
creatives in this discourse. Below are some of their
thoughts on this very important issue.
Nat Armarteifio: While observing some fishermen,
I noticed as they pulled in the nets, there was
somebody who “called” the music. He sat near the
boats on the beach and he would call the music
and the fishermen pulling in the nets would sing
in sympathy with the beats and with that they
managed to pull it in. This at the most basic level is
using the culture in order to facilitate development
of a process. So we do that. But when we look at
the national level, when we look at the huge plans
that are regularly thrown at us from government,
not much of it is infused with a sense that we as a
people are also a creative people. These are some
of the questions that I would like us to investigate in
this conversation.
Professor Opoku: This topic reflects what I believe.
Culture is what we as a people should be doing in
Ghana and in Africa. It is an incontrovertible fact
that we as a people can’t accomplish anything
Culture as the
Bedrock of Change
A conversation with Nat Armarteifio, Kinna Likimani and
Professor Kofi Asare Opoku
Above: Left to right - Kinna Likimani, Professor
Kofi Asare Opoku & Nat Armateifio.
Right: Kinna Likimani.
Below Right: AiD 12.11 audience.
Photos courtesy of Joe Addo

worthwhile without self-awareness, self-acceptance
and self-confidence. All of which take their vital
source from our cultural heritage. In other words
if we are going to be self confident and have self
awareness we have to go to our culture because
that is where our confidence comes from. If we are
going to make any impact on ourselves as a people,
an impact on anybody else we have to be standing
on something, and that something is our culture.
The ancestors who
preceded us here,
created their own
cultures, their own
civilizations and the
validity of what our
forefathers created is
found in the fact that
even after centuries
of denigration and
centuries of efforts at
removing or replacing
this culture, this
culture still remains
in some form.
As it is said “the scorching sun cannot erase the
stripes of the zebra.” All the efforts that have been
made to erase the African culture, to replace it with
something else, have amounted not to its total
elimination but rather its continued survival.
That is the foundation of national well-being and
true progress. By depending and building on our
own indigenous cultural foundations and knowledge,
we can develop self-confidence, which alone is the
ironclad guarantee of success in the present and in
the future. What is being advocated here is not blind
isolationism or myopic cultural nationalism. We live
inaninterdependentworldamongafamilyofnations
and peoples and we must learn from the experiences
of fellow human beings on the planet. But if we are
in possession of our minds, we will only borrow what
will come to embellish what we already have and not
what will come to supplant it. Our ancestors said “we
do not borrow someone else’s teeth to smile” and
it is with our own teeth that we are going to smile
in Africa. J.E. Casely Hayford, the noted Ghanaian
patriot wrote in his book “Ethiopia Unbound” that
no people can despise their own language, customs
and institutions and hope to avoid national death.
African cultures and institutions are the inescapable
foundation of African progress and development.
They are the sum without which we cannot tie the
knots of Africa’s future. We court certain National
Death if we willing accept and gleefully participate
in the downgrading of our own culture through the
influence of new forms of education and religious
practices.
Kinna Likimani: Ghanaian culture right now is about
religion and that is what is informing the political
space. They (politicians) don’t need to talk about
issues they just need to invoke the name of God.
They are not talking about heritage. There are
slogans that say the “battle is the lord.” The battle is
not the Ghanaians, the battle is the lord. When we
talk about culture right now in Ghana that is where
we are. I want to introduce this idea when we talk
about Culture as a Bedrock of Change, the kind of
hurdles we have to go through and how the space
is being eaten up actively by causes that we are not
in control of. We are not talking about Heritage, we
are not talking about Ghanaian culture, we are not
talking about change, and we are not talking about
development. Therefore we do not talk about why
we can’t achieve what we want to achieve because
all of our plans and everything we want to do is
devoid of our culture.
As it is said “the
scorching sun
cannot erase the
stripes of the
zebra.” All the
efforts that have
been made to erase
the African culture,
to replace it with
something else, have
amounted not to its
total elimination but
rather its continued
survival.

Amos Anyimadu: The question is Creatives may be
Political but should not be politicians. Creatives
in this sense refers to visual artists, musicians etc.
What is your first reaction to that?
Professor Korang: I think this is something that
needs to be properly contextualized. I don’t think
that you can sustain a generalization of this sort.
In cases of where human populations are enduring
stressful conditions: as in war, in tyranny, things of
this nature, it seems to me that art has a certain
social responsibility. Art becomes directly political in
situations [that demand relief for human beings]. I
myself have been in the literary field.
AA: Yes you are a Professor of Literature
PK: Yes I was, and now I do Cultural Studies broadly.
There’s been this debate over “Art for Art sake.” Art
as directly functional in a social sense. I think it is
possible to make the argument that art should not
be directly political, if we understand politics, as
being something that in the end is divisive rather
than something that integrates populations. So
yes, it makes sense to argue that a creative person
should be political but should not be a politician. If
we understand politics, it [may] be something that
divides rather than bring together.
AA: Even if politics divides, why can’t a creative
person take sides (a particular side)?
PK: Given our humanistic understanding of a creative
person, that which divides pits one person against
another. In that sense it is something that is anti-
humanistic.
AA: It is interesting that you mention it. I don’t know
the exact thought that engendered this particular
questionfromArchiAfrika,butIsuspectoneaspectof
course is that we are in a very concentrated political
period right now, especially with the musicians.
Almost every musician is making the songs about
peace. Do you have any opinion on this kind of
situation?
PK: Well, there are two aspects of it. There are
musicians making songs and so forth for a political
purpose, and then there is the question of musicians
Conversation about
creatives and
politics
A conversation with Amos Anyimadu and Professor Korang
If art allegiance is to
a human totality. If
art is to make the
human possible.
Then it should not
be an instrument
that divides in that
sense.
making general songs to promote peace. It seems
to me that this is mainly a question of what ought
to be the ethical position of art and artists for that
matter. Is it ethical for the artist/musician to mount
a political podium and do the work of advancing a
partisan interest when it ought to be possible for the
artist to be post-partisan?
AA: I would like you to be a bit more opinionated.
In America for instance there are a lot of very
creative guys who openly came out in support of
Obama, as I understand it. Do you think with our
experience in politics, that that is necessarily a bad
thing? PK: I don’t think it is a bad thing. I think that
support mounted in the name of a higher humanity,
that this is the candidate who best represents
[us]… The way we should approach this question
is to proceed on a case-by-case basis. Rather than
having a generalization that one size fits all. In every
condition, in every situation, in every historical time,
in every ------ this has to hold true.
AA: I know you have just come back and are
acclimatizing to our local situation here. But are
there any contemporary local artists that you see as
particularly political?
PK: A local person like Mensah who did the NDC
song and Kwabena Kwabena.
AA: Do you think their support approaches what you
are trying to describe? Like yes they may take a side
or divide, but that divide represents humanity or
certain conceptions of humanity? Lets take America
for example. Stevie Wonder went to Nigeria and
of course you know Fela always had problems with
Obasanjo who is a very powerful Nigerian. You know
how they solved that problem? The promoters
somehow connected to our now President Mahama,
whom they got to agree to attend the opening
in Lagos. So because of Mahama, the Nigerian
government was forced to at least cooperate to
allow the musical to go into Lagos. Fela is such a giant
in African cultural space, but many think his cultural
outlook is affected by his politics. It is negated by
his politics. For instance, his band would not have
broken up in 1978 had it not been for his involvement
in addressing the politics of Nigeria.
PK: You can also say that his politics helped to spread
his music.
AA: That’s why I’m saying that we can’t make a
blanket statement that creative workers can do
politics but don’t have to be politicians. It is too
general. It is something that needs to be strongly
qualified. It is true to a certain extent. Here we have
an example that you have a given us from history,
where a creative person has decided to go into
politics (as we understand it) and this undermines
his creative works. That is a fine example.
AA: As you know this journal is about architecture,
butthearchitectshavebeenkindenoughtorecognize
that they are embedded within the larger culture.
Let’s talk a little about architecture connected to
entertainment in Ghana especially. Of course both
of us spent a big part of our youth in Takoradi. You
may not remember this but I remember very clearly
that you said once that “Takoradi is the Manhattan
of Ghana.” Let’s talk a little bit about entertainment
buildings in Takoradi. We were discussing before
Princess Cinema Hall, which has been torn down and
isnowaLatterDaySaintsHall. Whatdoyouremember
about Princess Cinema Hall architecturally?
PK: Back in the day it was an impressive edifice.
AA: Are you implying by today’s standards it would
not be that impressive?
PK: (laughs) No just setting the context. It was also
one of the landmarks of the city of Takoradi. What
troubles me about these ill-conceived efforts at
reconstruction that in our bid to modernize we are
actually destroying the elements that comprise the
soul of our community. I haven’t been to Takoradi
recently but from what you are saying, it appears to
be that a significant part of Takoradi has disappeared.

AA: From what you remember of Takoradi can you
describe the social role of Princess Cinema Hall in
the early 80s?
PK: The social role was that of course everyone
converged on Princess to go to watch movies in
those days. It was the social center, a magnet of
sorts. It was one of those sites where community
was not only made but also renewed. It wasn’t
just an objective specter standing there. It meant
something to people. That meaning in that sense
was communal. This is what makes our community.
AA: As a Takoradi boy, looking back and looking at
the way cultural locations are developing in Ghana
now, the point you made about community is very
important. But lets focus on the cinema hall aspects,
which was about 70% of the edifice. I remember
very clearly it as such that that anybody even
the unemployed could attend. You could go up
there with the proper cinema chairs. I just wanted
concretize that. There has ceased to be a cinema
place in Takoradi. Can you describe the physical
side/structure of Princess? As an infant, my mother
told my mother told me that they used to carry me
around Princess because there are so many grand
cinema palaces. Do you remember Pempe in Zenith?
PK: What I remember about Pempe is the bed bugs
in the seats. Pempe was a local place, a lot more
mice than Princess. I think it has a more important
history in Ghana’s cultural history. It was right next
to Princess. Zenith was the home of Broadway.
Above: The Princess and Zenith as they are today
“in war, in
tyranny,
things of this
nature, it
seems to me
that art has a
certain social
responsibility”

THE SLOW DEATH OF THE
MAURITIAN’S
ARCHITECTURAL IDENTITY
- a call for regenerative architecture
By Zaheer Allam & Dr. Zarrin Allam
Architects and urban designers have a unique sense
of ownership and responsibility in the way that our
towns and villages emerge and take shape. With a
change of infrastructure comes a change in the way
we perceive ourselves and hence a change in our
identity. The identity of a place and its relationship
to the community matters since it is an intrinsic part
of a community’s sense of belonging. Hence, when
architects bring about change in an environment,
they should be considering the community’s needs
in the equation. But do they?
Globalization is creating an undesirable uniformity in
cities around the world. Architects are heralding it as
the era of ‘modernization.’ In Mauritus, an interesting
question has emerged: As a country that prides
itself to be the face of leadership and innovation in
the African World, will Mauritius adhere to such an
ideology? We claim the banner of leadership and
yet, paradoxically, exhibit all the scars of a victim
of globalization. By promoting the embracement
of foreign cultures, we are denying our own roots.
We forget all too quickly that a colorful, historic
Mauritius, a cradle of laughter and fulfillment to one
and all, appeals far more that an island that is a mere
notch on the belt of globalization.
Our architects and engineers tend to forget that
architecture is not prescriptive. It does not state
that all buildings should be of the same mould
or that they should be carved from the same
materials. Glass, shiny titanium surfaces and other
such bearings of the said ‘avant garde’ movement
are not the embodiment of architectural promise
and achievement. They are expressions of a visual
ideology encapsulated in architectural mantras of
modernity. What we are experiencing and creating is
far from being intelligent architecture.
We are accustomed to our rich colonization history
by the Dutch, French and English but our cities
do not reflect this history. Our infrastructure and
planning do not tell a story and our style can no
longer be perceived as an adaptation or evolution
of our past. The way an architect or a community
visualizes a place does not mirror the image that is
projected by that same place to an outsider. What he
will see would be historical buildings that have been
left to slowly crumble or are, sadly, being used only
by hawkers or the homeless. The prestige that was
once linked to such places seeped in history, is slowly
fading away as we are witnesses to the demolition of
other such buildings in favor of erecting new ones.
Our history is being erased…our memories soiled.
Theidentityofanyarchitecturalpieceisfundamentally
related to its emergent locality, the spirit endowed
by the place and its symbolism. However, we tend to
oppose these very principles by deconstructing our
history and instead giving life to structures without
contextual identity. Such types of building now adorn
our skyline. Instead of constructing around our
cultural attributes and unique society, our architects,
urban designers and engineers are instead creating
a multitude of styles that reflect westernized
culture without projecting the spirit and essence
of the place. This unfortunately leads to a lack of
harmony among the merging architectural trends
and also deconstructs the context, value and story
of the community involved. We can only imagine the
consequences of such a haphazard planning on our
future.
It is crucial to find a proper balance between
architecture and physical, ecological and social well
being. We must celebrate our diversity and promote
a good standard of living while protecting and
preserving our cultural and architectural identity.
Strongemphasisshouldbeplacedonproperplanning
since the continuation of our present haphazard
construction puts our future generations at risk of
inheriting a place that lacks not only design but also
an embodied cultural identity. Our cities and our
buildings will face a slow decay; our history forgotten
to all, hanging on to sheer survival in wizened history
books that scream to be read.

At present, the only widely known exotic
architectural pieces that embrace the colloquialisms
of colonial style and philosophies are meant for the
tourist industry. Our economy thrives on tourism
and hence numerous hotels have been set up to
accommodate our visitors in good fashion. While it is
still questionable as to how some of those buildings
really relate to our country’s identity, we must
nevertheless acknowledge the efforts at projecting
a semi-historical image to our guests. However, one
must not forget that the tourist experience is not
confined to hotels. Most people like to immerse
themselves in the culture of a place and tend to travel
and interact with the local populace. The overall and
most lasting impact would hence be their experience
in our different cities or villages; their impression of
our local architecture and its relation to our people
and our cultural identity. Should we take time to
ponder on that experience, we come to notice that
we are actually highlighting the very real dichotomy
in our infrastructure: The luxurious, well designed
hotels versus our crumbling cities and villages.
Cultural identity is
a matter of being as
well as becoming
and it belongs to
our future as much
as to our past.
Thus, our cultural heritage should not be confined
within the walls of hotels but extended to
encompass our streets. The cultural ethos should
not promote a shift towards the architectural
style of centuries gone by but instead advocate
for an evolution based on our architectural roots
by enriching our landscape with clever design and
construction. It should not aim for the erection
of stable configurations alone but instead aim
to create a co-habitation between history and
structure, between our past and present. We need
to redefine how we want to visualize our future.
Over the years, we have been favoring our economic
stability to the detriment of our heritage and identity.
We should now pause and reflect upon our current
position. Our city reflects who we are and if we
encourage the developing, so called modern trend,
this is the image we are projecting of ourselves.
The global economy is an instrument of undoing
of the magnificent expressions of ancient cultures.
Western interventions have the potential to negate
our identity and our values. In effect, we are cutting
the ties that bind us to our sense of belonging in the
world.
Architectural philosophy states that “form follows
function” but we are now entering an alarming
era where function defies the form. We need to
act to restore our image. We need to bring back
glory to our heritage sites and to retrofit existing
old structures into community spaces instead of
demolishing them in favor of building new ones. We
also need to attempt to discover the relationship
between site-specific design, the symbolic creations
of the architect and the unique connection that the
involved community has with their city, town or
village.
It is an era of change and excitement; for us to
advocatepersonally,academically,andprofessionally
a different kind of architecture. One that is clear in
precedence, of form and material appropriate to
the particular task at hand, focused in purpose on
the reconstruction of the city and the regeneration
of culture, and dedicated equally to the service of
status and wealth as it is to social equity. It is high
time for us to promote our culture, not only on
foreign ground but to our own people and within our
own community so that we can create a place not
only rich in history but also in culture.
Previous page: The city of Port Louis showing
how styles contrast and a concrete uniformity is
present
Above: The hotels, one of the rare ‘Mauritian’
Architectural style promoted.
Above Right: The hotels, one of the rare ‘Mauri-
tian’ Architectural style promoted.
Below Right: The theater, a historic piece, in Port
Louis, the capital city, showing details of how it is
left crumbling
Photos courtesy of Zaheer Allam

Head of the jury, Enrique Norten (Mexico), explained
the exemplary nature of the project in terms of its
successful approach to the adaptive use of building
materials, community development, climatic
mitigation and aesthetics. “This beautiful school
is not only an elegant design solution, but it also
delivers training and employment, uses local building
materials, and – with simple means – creates an
outstanding environment from a social perspective
and also in constructive terms,” he said.
Burkina Faso
school is a
world-class
example of
sustainable
construction in
practice
Global Holcim Awards Gold 2012 project by Diébédo
FrancisKérépraisedasan“outstandingenvironment”
by international jury
Sustainableconstructionisanimportantresponsibility
for professional architects and designers worldwide
and is intrinsically linked to improving quality of life
and the effectiveness of the built environment. To
support the promotion of sustainable construction,
the Swiss-based Holcim Foundation for Sustainable
Construction conducts international competitions
for projects and visions on the leading edge of
improving sustainability. The top prize in the USD
2 million Awards was won by a school project in
Burkina Faso that uses a hybrid building technique
while at the same time showcasing outstanding
social and environmental performance.
The Global Holcim Awards Gold 2012 was presented
to Berlin-based architect Diébédo Francis Kéré,
himself a son of the village headman of Gando,
Burkina Faso where his latest school complex for
more than 1,000 children is being constructed.
The project was selected by an independent
international jury, winning the top prize ahead of a
multifunctional public building by Urban-Think Tank
(U-TT) in the slums of São Paulo, and the “Flussbad”
urban transformation project in central Berlin of
realities:united.
The architect needed to convince the locals of the
durability and strength of clay which is poured and
cast similar to concrete, improving its structural
performance by adding a small proportion of
cement. The approach uses clay and stones that
are collected from land adjacent to the village, and
introduces new and more sustainable construction
techniques. Diverse design aspects of the project
address the challenging weather conditions with
temperatures peaking above 40°C. For the interior
climate, the natural ventilation cooling effect is
enhanced by routing air through underground tubes,
planting vegetation, and the use of double-skin roofs
and façades to achieve a remarkable temperature
reduction.
FRANCIS Kéré
PHILOSOPHER,
ACTIVIST,
ARCHITECT
By the Holcim Foundation about
Diébédo Francis Kéré
Above: Primary School at Gando, Burkina Faso
Below: Primary School at Gando, Burkina Faso
Next Page: Interior Views of Secondary school
with passive ventilation system, Gando, Burkina
Faso, Courtesy Holcim Foundation

interiorviews
More than just
architecture or
development aid
This school project aims to provide further education
to the inhabitants of a rural area. Gando, with a
population of 3000, has no secondary education
facilities and lies on the southern plains of Burkina
Faso, some 200km from Ouagadougou. Diverse
designaspectsoftheprojectconsiderthechallenging
weather conditions and high summer temperatures.
The natural ventilation cooling effect is enhanced
by routing air through underground tubes, planting
vegetation, and the use of double-skin roofs and
façades to achieve a significant thermal reduction –
enhancing indoor comfort and creating conditions
are far more conducive to education.
Energy consumption during construction and
operation has been reduced to a minimum using only
the sun and wind. The collection of scarce rainwater
is integrated into the planting concept and is used
to irrigate newly-planted trees that are intended to
help consolidate previously exploited vegetation.
Completed projects including an elementary school
and library contributed to the evolving research and
development process concerning design concepts,
technologies and materials.
Theprojecthasbeenadaptedtouselargerclayelements
cast in place instead of bricks for wall construction.
Most of the construction materials are locally
available: granite stones for the base, clay and fast-
growing eucalyptus wood, mainly used as firewood.
Above: Mechanism of passive ventilation system of
Secondary school, Gando, Burkina Faso, Courtesy
Holcim Foundation
Opposite: Interior Views of Secondary school with
passive ventilation system, Gando, Burkina Faso,
Courtesy Holcim Foundation

“At the beginning
I just wanted
to build a tiny
primary school;
but you only
live once. And
who gets the
opportunity
to design his
environment in
the way that I can
now in Gando?”
The cornerstone of
education
The deep motivation of the architect is to improve
the quality of life for the people of his home village
of Gando. Burkina Faso has a literacy rate of only
22% so most people have no alternative to farming.
There is a chronic shortage of secondary schools
in the country because in the past, only primary
schools have been supported financially by foreign
institutions and the Burkinabe government. Through
educational programs for adults and a public library,
the schools in Gando are open to the community
and will address adult literacy and contribute to the
village’s social capital.
Building skills and
a stronger
community
The second aim of the school project is to create a
platform for meeting, learning and teaching – which
has been considered as a good model of community
work throughout the country. The project has also
enhanced job prospects for the young workers who
were trained in the construction techniques. It is of
a great importance to teach and train locals in the
use of new techniques in order to enhance their
independence and sustainability of the building
process. The project motivates the community
through creating new jobs where traditional
techniques are combined with new know-how.
Reforestation is part of the design and climate
concept of the school project. The trees and grasses
filter the air from dust and create high-quality
community space. The students are responsible
for the newly planted trees and water them via a
specially designed irrigation system that carries the
water directly to the root. This system is used until
the roots reach deep enough for the ground water.
The journey goes on
Diébédo Francis Kéré continues to work tirelessly
on his complex in Gando. “At the beginning I just
wanted to build a tiny primary school; but you only
live once. And who gets the opportunity to design his
environment in the way that I can now in Gando?”
Because of the importance attached to literacy in
Burkina Faso, many primary schools were built –
and secondary education was largely forgotten.
Many young people have received only a primary
school education and are not qualified for skilled
occupations. “But a country needs good technicians;
a primary school education is not enough,” Kéré
remarks.
Above: Views of Secondary school with passive
ventilation system, Gando, Burkina Faso, Courtesy
Holcim Foundation

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