posted
Many people make the ASSumption that Africa is void of Architecture and that African live in Mud Huts, unorganized buildings...I have read 100 times of supposed Afrocentrists and Eurocentrics make arguments based on ignorant(AMERICANS) and obviously moronic and biased ideas of Africa based on what they see on T.V.
These include sub-sahran Africans did'nt use stone materials, Africans did'nt plan cities, Africans did'nt contribute to Archtecture...LOL.
Eurocentrics use European forms to compare to Africans forms and Afrocentics usally find the most European looking forms of African Architecture to "Defend" their positions.
Jari-Ankhamun Member # 14451
posted
Ok. first off some things to ponder
1. The first named Architect was African(Imhotep ok K.mt) so this whole Africans did'nt contribute to Architecture is rubbish.
2. Stone materials were used in West, North, East and South Africa. Also, there IS NOTHING wrong with "Huts". http://www.pitt.edu/~tokerism/0040/africa.html So lets get to it.... Ancient... Kerma: http://wysinger.homestead.com/kerma.html Top: Monumental stone decoration with sacred hippopotami from the entrance to a funerary temple at Kerma, 1600 B.C. Naturally mummified body of one of the archers whose job it was to protect Kerma 4,200 years ago. Above, clockwise from left: Excavated area showing post holes left by numerous huts built over several centuries some four millennia ago. In the background are the eroded remnants of ancient Kerma’s main temple built of mud brick around 2000 B.C. Six pots from Kerma 2000 B.C. Bucranias in front of a Kerma grave. Storage pits for wheat and barley from the very beginning of Kerma civilisation 3000 B.C. Archaeologists in Sudan are unearthing one of the world’s oldest civilisations – an ancient kingdom which began to fourish 5,000 years ago, hundreds of miles to the south of ancient Egypt. Excavations – directed by Swiss archaeologists, Professor Charles Bonnet and Dr. Matthieu Honegger – have been revealing a royal palace, temples, extraordinary tombs and a massive ancient city on the banks of the Nile in Northern Sudan. Academics have been speculating over whether this long-lost civilisation may have been the precursor of the famous biblical Kingdom of Kush, which was alluded to in the Book of Genesis.
As a direct result of these and other excavations, Sudan is emerging as one of the most significant archaeological regions in the world. Due to the country’s superbly preserved archaeology, it has yielded evidence of early cattle domestication that pre-dates any in Egypt’s Nile Valley. What’s more, the earliest Sudanese civilisation – known as Ta-Sety (“the Land of the Archers’ Bow”) to the ancient Egyptians and Kerma to modern archaeologists – is the most ancient African urban culture outside the Land of the Pharaohs. It flourished as a totally independent political entity for at least 15 centuries – until finally, around 1500 B.C., it was conquered by the Pharaohs of Egypt
Sundiata Member # 13096
posted
A few photos and descriptions...
Meroe, Pyramids:
Yeha, Ethiopia (Askumite):
Fes, Morocco
Djenne, Mali:
Sankore University. Timbuktu, Mali (1325 A.D.)
Benin City, prior to British colonialism:
Great Zimbabwe
Tomb of Askia
Al bakri on Ancient Ghana:
quote:The capital of Ghana is called Kumbi Saleh. The city consists of two towns lying on a plain, one of which is inhabited by Muslims and is large, possessing 12 mosques. The town also possesses a large number of judges and learned men.
Surrounding both towns are wells of sweet water from which they drink and near which they cultivate vegetables. The town inhabited by the king is six miles from the Muslim one and is called Al Ghana. The area between the two towns is covered with houses made of stone and wood. The king has a palace and conical huts, surrounded by a wall-like enclosure. In the king’s town, not far from the royal court of justice, is a mosque. The Muslims who come on missions to the king pray there. There is one great avenue, which crosses the town from east to west.
Ibn Battuta on the Swahili Coast:
quote:We stayed one night in this island [Mombasa], and then pursued our journey to Kulwa, which is a large town on the coast. The majority of its inhabitants are Zanj, jet-black in colour, and with tattoo marks on their faces. I was told by a merchant that the town of Sufala lies a fortnight's journey [south] from Kulwa and that gold dust is brought to Sufala from Yufi in the country of the Limis, which is a month's journey distant from it. Kulwa is a very fine and substantially built town, and all its buildings are of wood. Its inhabitants are constantly engaged in military expeditions, for their country is contiguous to the heathen Zanj.
And:
quote:"Ngazargamu, the capital city of Kanem-Borno, became one of the largest cities in the seventeenth century world. By 1658 AD, the metropolis, according to an architectural scholar housed “about quarter of a million people”. It had 660 streets. Many were wide and unbending, reflective of town planning."
- Robin Walker
Alive-(What Box) Member # 10819
posted
A good and honourable endeavor for a thread, Jari, indeed reminiscent of the old forum, compared to the utter ****-heap that this forum seems to have become at a more and more increasing rate.
I digress.
^It is often implied that the architecture is somehow in *** style *** Islamic, but the Tomb of Askia and other monuments like it in reality are just fine examples of the monumental mud-building traditions of the West African Sahel.
^Another Malian monument.
^Dogon.
^Igbo 'pyramids'.
On the subject (and I know this doesn't have anything to do with what I just said) does anyone know the validity in the claim that materials from Mecca were used to build the Askia tomb?
Sundiata Member # 13096
posted
quote:^It is often implied that the architecture is somehow in *** style *** Islamic, but the Tomb of Askia and other monuments like it in reality are just fine examples of the monumental mud-building traditions of the West African Sahel.
Indeed, the coned spires in some of the designs, along with the spiked exterior and general lay out is typical Sudano-Sahelian. The first examples of it were in Jenne-Jeno long before the arrival of Islam. Yes, there is an adherence to Islamic convention, but regionally, the Islamic structures of the Sahel region are notably unique/distinct.
quote:On the subject (and I know this doesn't have anything to do with what I just said) does anyone know the validity in the claim that materials from Mecca were used to build the Askia tomb?
I doubt it. I mean, who'd bring mud brick all the way from Mecca when there is plenty in the Sahel? It was more than likely simply an honor to associate by any means with the birthplace of Islam, given its significance. I believe according to Malian tradition, the inner court of the Sankore mosque was built using the same dimensions of the Kaaba (which is probably true).
markellion Member # 14131
posted
Great thread, bellow is this video on African fractal geometry and it's very important because it seems to explain how and why many Africans organize their villages and cities the way they do and that they were not "unplanned". It makes sense when you read descriptions of Kerma and other towns
quote:Originally posted by Sundiata: Benin City, prior to British colonialism:
The bellow is from a random book I got from the local library "A History of Art in Africa", this is how it describes the city plan of Benin:
quote:A plan of Benin City prior to its sack in 1897 in turn shows the palace at the center, surrounded on most sides by the compounds of lesser chiefs, craftspeople, and other court members. The map and the plan, both of a roughly concentric design, bear out Benin ideology. In Benin thought, the sacred king is the center point. From him, a sequence of circles radiates outward. The first circle includes his chiefs, protectors, and supporters; the next embraces guilds of craftspeople and artists. Next are villagers that pay allegiance and tribute. Farther out still are hostile enemy peoples, and beyond these are the unknowable realms of gods, imagined by the Edo as coextensive with the ocean which they believe encircles their world.
In processions and other ceremonies, the oba is central among his court members, flanked by, with his arms often supported by, designated titleholders. He is transformed by his costume and regalia into a work of art, a walking pyramidal assemblage of a symbolic materials and emblems. He wears cloth woven by his weavers' guild and embellished with many regal motifs. His tunic and headdress are fashioned of coral beads, his armlets of ivory. His hoop skirt creates a wide conical base, expanding him to monumental size, as befits a divinity. His headdress points upward to the celestial realm while adding height to the regal image.
quote:The Portuguese first dealt with the kingdom accordingly, on a more or less equal basis, exchanging ambassadors…
Their highly centralized political structure allowed them to rule over an area 150,000 square km, almost the size of Uganda, stretching south to the Zaire estuary. They acquired a mastery of metallurgy, law, weaving and textiles. The art of the Kongo remains, even today, one of the most elaborate in Africa, making use of wood, cloth, terra cotta and even stones. Kongo not only survived contact with the Portuguese but continued expansion and development into a centralized state until civil wars in the late seventeenth century. The memory of the magnificent kingdom which proclaimed very early the achievements of black men, is still present in the minds of many intellectuals and leaders of Africa today.
Description of Mbanza Kongo:
quote:When the Portuguese ambassador reached Mbanza Kongo in 1491, 7 years before reaching Mombasa, the city was already quite spread out, according to Cuvelier who gives us a detailed description:
The streets were not aligned, nor the houses of the ancient Kongo kingdom, no avenues lined with palms or ornamental trees. Narror paths were running in all directions through the tall grass. The living quarters of the most important people were located close to the king's quarters. Spread out, according to their taste or their fancy, they occupied sometimes quite a considerable space. The houses were made of straw without any ornaments, except inside, where there would be a palm cloth hanging on the wall, representing an antelope or an other animal. The houses of the important people could be distinguished from those of the simple ones, because they were larger and had more painted palm cloths. The houses were surrounded by a fence made from very strong trees: the mingienge, mpesempese, African poplars, cactus (dizza) with a sap which could poison spearheads and war knives. Toward the north, the mountain was crowned with dark woods, a sacred place where the noise of a hatchet was never heard. Palms, baobabs and many trees stood there and this was where the ancient kings were buried. The founder of the kingdom of Ntinu Wene was buried there. To the south, there was a large courtyard called Mbazi ou Mbazi Nkanu, the court of justice, because there, under a huge wild fig tree... which shaded a corner of the place, the kings used to administer justice. It was a large open space where crowds would gather to receive the king's blessing, to watch dances and triumphal parades.
Not far from this public place was the king's residence or enclosure, which was called lumbu by the natives. This enclosure was more than one thousand meters in circumference and was made of pales tied together with lianas...
At the gates. Mavitu were standing the royal guards and some horn blowers. Inside the fence, there was a courtyard; then one could see another fence, in the middle of which was the king's house. One could reach it through a labyrinth. The only difference between this and the other houses, was that this one was more spacious. Inside the royal enclosure, the queen and her residence surrounded by huts with her followers who accompanied her when she left the enclosure.
This description shows well that the urban centre resembled many big villages in central Africa with living quarters spread out and surrounded by hedges and gardens. The layout of the capital was probably not very different from the provincial centre, the clustering of the population resulting essentially from the presence of the king or an important chief. The Mbanza political centers exist only in relation to the holder of power and their evolution is linked. Built of earth, wood, straw and palms, these cities were fragile and their rise and fall was linked to the person who exercised the power. As elsewhere in central Africa, this type of centre gravitates around the king's or the governor's compound with their households, the courtyard and the sacred woods often used as a cemetery for the ancestor's graves. Those different elements put into space the sacred king, a sort of symbolic mechanism which mediates between nature and culture. From this symbolic nucleus, the urban center spreads and stretches following the evocative image of Balandier. The resulting settlement is a city, if one considers the number of people and a village, even if out of proportion, if one considers aspect and structure...
Even if there is a correlation between the development of the Kongo political organization and the birth of elementary urban civilization as noted by Balandier, one must admit that we do not have an urban tradition similar to those of the old West African cities, probably due to the materials used for building...
Like many cities, the location of the major cities in west-central Africa can easily be explained by a favorable ecological context and their origin could be related to the development of long-distance trade and the production of certain commodities. Their development is also connected to the rise of a complex and highly centralized society. And yet, one feels that before the arrival of the Europeans, the major urban centres did not differ significantly from the smaller villages, except for the number of inhabitants. The layout was one of open, scattered garden-cities or villages with a ceremonial and symbolic centre, as in many major tropical centres on other continents.
It seems to me that one should look more into the symbolic nature of those centres than into their rather obvious material explanations. The origin of the town is directly linked to the chief or king figure and the whole layout is a symbolic map of the essential function of the sacred kingship. The power and prestige of the king and of his city was such that long after the collapse of the kingdom, Mbanza Kongo remained the lcus of power, authority and legitimacy, the place where all the matrilineal descent groups lived together with the king. In the eighteenth century, the region of the ruined capital was called ‘Mpemba’ which referred to the ‘white’ of the other world, the ancestors, and the dead.
If one wants to know more about those very ancient and fascinating African garden-cities, one should hope it will soon become possible to carry out systematic archaeological research and that much more attention will be given from an anthropological point of view to rituals and tradition in relation to the sacred kingship/ As de Heusch has shown, in many central African societies, power must be understood in the first place in ritual terms. One must look first to the symbolic order and distinguish it from the political forms that it takes in various times and places.
Jari-Ankhamun Member # 14451
posted
Kush continued Meroe(Merowe)
Rulers of Nubia established their capital at Meroë around 300 B.C., and the kingdom lasted there for more than nine centuries. Forty generations of Nubian royalty are buried in Meroë, and every royal Nubian tomb is housed within a pyramid. Meroitic pyramids are smaller and differ in architecture from Egyptian pyramids; the largest Nubian pyramid, with a base of 170 feet, is that of Taharqa, compared with the 750-foot base of Cheops' pyramid at Giza.
Contrary to the popularly-held belief that ancient Africans could not and did not develop their own written language, inscriptions in a distinct indigenous alphabet appear in Meroë as early as the 2nd century B.C. This written Meroitic language was used into the 5th century, when it was eventually replaced by Old Nubian. Widespread use of Meroitic on monuments indicates that a significant percentage of the population was able to read it. However, the meanings of these inscriptions remain unknown as this hieroglyphic-derived script is as yet untranslatable.
Reaching the height of prosperity in the 1st century A.D., Meroë may have covered an area up to a square mile. But most of the city remains unexcavated, and archaeologists have little idea of its layout. There were stone tombs and temples, but other more important buildings were made of red bricks; the humbler structures were almost certainly built of mud bricks. Within Meroë are traces of a royal palace and a large bath complex1.
Meroë is also famed for its massive iron production, the first large-scale industry of its kind in the Nile Valley. But the technology of this industry is historically credited to the Romans, and not to the Nubians.
quote:Originally posted by Jari-Ankhamun: 2. Stone materials were used in West, North, East and South Africa. Also, there IS NOTHING wrong with "Huts". http://www.pitt.edu/~tokerism/0040/africa.html
Simply search for 'African hut villages' or 'village of African huts'.
Also, stone building in West Africa from the aforementioned photo stream:
quote:
Photograph taken in 1967 or 1968. Stone and mud were used instead of wood and mud for the walls of the houses at this site because of the rocky surface, which didn't allow stakes to be planted. The town was built on a hilltop for defense purposes and was gradually deserted for more accessible places during the first part of the twentieth century. That's me (1.84 metres tall) for scale.
Sundiata Member # 13096
posted
Another thing to add concerning the Swahili Coast.
quote:Originally posted by Sundiata: Ibn Battuta on the Swahili Coast: "We stayed one night in this island [Mombasa], and then pursued our journey to Kulwa, which is a large town on the coast. The majority of its inhabitants are Zanj, jet-black in colour, and with tattoo marks on their faces. I was told by a merchant that the town of Sufala lies a fortnight's journey [south] from Kulwa and that gold dust is brought to Sufala from Yufi in the country of the Limis, which is a month's journey distant from it. Kulwa is a very fine and substantially built town, and all its buildings are of wood. Its inhabitants are constantly engaged in military expeditions, for their country is contiguous to the heathen Zanj."
^^Of course the significance of Ibn Battuta's description being the past debate on the origin of Swahili architecture being attributable to some sort of Arab/persian import as opposed to African traditions of the Bantu who'd lived along the coast for millinea.
Chami, Kimaryo and others have made powerful arguments against such early hypotheses, establishing the Swahili settlements as individual African creations.
From: Kimaryo, Jacob L. (2000), East African Coastal Historical Towns: Asiatic or African?
Abstract excerpt: "This paper makes a critical review of the two perspectives about the founders and dwellers of East African coastal historical towns. The review shows that the Asiatic perspective is based on the colonial deliberate falsification of African history, and to certain extents limited historical understanding about the East African coast. The African perspective on the contrary, is founded on credible evidence from historical records and recent archaeological findings and interpretations. The evidence strongly suggests that historical Swahili people are descendants of Bantu and Cushitic speaking people who settled along the East African coast in the first millennium."
quote:African vs. Asiatic Perspective:
Asiatic Perspective: Swahili as Predominantly Asiatic
Proponents of this view, e.g. Coupland (1956), Hollingsworth (1951), Kickman (1963, 1974), Chittick (1965, 1984), etc., see the historical Swahili as consisting of people of Arabic and Persian origin and from intermarriages between the Asians and African women.
Coupland (1956) portrayed the whole of historic East African coast as a colony of immigrants from the Middle East. Coupland further observed that, indigenous inhabitants of the region were relegated to the roles of wives and slaves for the immigrants. Earlier, Hollingsworth (1951) had alleged an existence of a Persian or Arab-Persian Empire called Zenj Empire along the East African coast before the 15th century. Accordingly, he argued that civilization that took place in the region during that time was inherent in the Asian settlers. Coupland and Hollingsworth observations were based purely on historical and cultural narratives and assumptions.
The Asiatic perspective was supported further by Kirkman (1963, 1964), and Chittick (1965, 1984). Kirkman (1963) in correlating physical evidence from his archaeological excavations in Gedi and other sites of historical towns along the Kenyan coast with cultural and historical narratives concluded that the sites were Arabic colonial settlements. A year later, James Kirkman in his Men and Monuments on the East African Coast, reiterated the Asiatic view as thus:
The historical monuments of East Africa belong, not to the Africans but to Arabs and Arabised Persians, mixed in blood with the African but in culture utterly apart from the Africans who surround them. (Kirkman, 1964)
A similar historical interpretation was suggested by Neville Chittick in his archaeological works in Kilwa Kisiwani (Chittick, 1965) and Manda in the Lamu archipelago (Chittick, 1984).
In Kilwa Kisiwani, Chittick implied Asiatic connection of the towns inhabitants from the names of a number of Kilwa rulers engraved on excavated locally minted coins. On the basis of dynastic history, he claimed that the rulers were from a Persian city called Shiraz. To Chittick, Kilwa Kisiwani was a Persian colonial settlement. He argued that the Persians had a period of settlement in southern Somalia before they landed in Kilwa Kisiwani (Horton, 1996). It is important to note here that for some unknown reasons, Chittick in his later two volumes work on Kilwa (Chittick, 1974) avoided association of the towns population with Persians. Instead he advanced the towns population as an amalgamation of Arabs and Africans by which albeit the latter constituted the greater part of the amalgam, they were however absorbed into the society as wives, slaves or otherwise (ibid:245). In Manda, Chittick revived his old idea of colonisers from Shiraz in Persia. That he did on the basis of mainly excavated imported pottery. He modified the idea a little bit by arguing that, the initial point of settlement of the Shiraz Persians was not southern Somalia as earlier contended but the Lamu archipelago (Chittick, 1984; Horton, 1996).
Chittick's position and perhaps that of Hollingsworth on the origin of historic Swahili could have been partly influenced by the Kilwa Chronicles. The latter is a controversial compilation in Arabic language of what was essentially an oral-historical composition about Kilwa from its foundation to about 1550 when the compilation was made. According to the compilation, the founders of Kilwa originated from Shiraz in the land of Persia. They arrived in Kilwa in a ship led by Ali bin al-Hasan one of sons of the sultan of Shiraz. The story goes on to suggest that in addition to the ship that landed in Kilwa there were six other ships each led by one of five other sons of the sultan and himself. Five of the ships landed in different points along the East African coast including Mombasa, Pemba, and perhaps Shanga. The last ship landed in the Comoro islands. Interestingly, the chronicles gave the reason for the immigration of the whole sultanate to East Africa as being a bad dream the sultan had which he claimed to have correctly interpreted as a prophecy of destruction of his country. From the Kilwa Chronicles therefore, most of the early urban civilisations that sprang along the East African coast before about the 16th century were a result of the immigrants from Shiraz in Persia.
The Asiatic perspective about historical Swahili people has also been defended linguistically. Most such defences have been centred round a popular assumption that earlier Swahili language was an ancient mixture of Arabic and Bantu languages (see Horton, 1996).
African Perspective: Swahili as Predominantly African
By denying Africans any significant link with historic Swahili people, the Asiatic perspective implies that Africans per se had little to do if any with the evolution of historical towns in their own region. This contradicts sharply with records of ancient travellers and geographers who visited the East African coast and recent archaeological findings. For example, during his visit to Mombasa and Kilwa in 1331, Ibn Battuta, a famous Moroccan traveller, described Kilwa as a large city along the coast whose inhabitants were black meaning Africans (see Sutton, 1990:81). Ibn Battuta went even further to mentioning that the inhabitants had tattoos on their faces, a facial feature which is common in a number of Bantu speaking tribes including the Makonde who resides in the area around Tanzania and Mozambique border which is within very close proximity of Kilwa. Some Chinese descriptions of inhabitants of early settlements along the East African coast also indicate strongly that the inhabitants were Africans (see Allen, 1993:21-26).
Perhaps the most interesting and credible evidence against the Asiatic view is founded in findings from recent archaeological surveys and excavations. For instance, an archaeological interpretation based on recent archaeological excavations on the Kenyan north coast suggests that historic Swahili were offspring of a Pastoral-Cushitic group from the Rift Valley and northern part of Kenya (see Horton, 1984, 1987, 1990; Abungu, 1989, 1994). On the basis of excavated cattle and camel bones, Horton (1984, 1987) argued that the Pastoral-Cushitic people founded a number of settlements in the northern coast of Kenya between the 8th and 10th century. He envisaged that the settlements were market centres that provided opportunity for the African inhabitants to come into contact with foreign traders. The contact is believed to have resulted in increased knowledge about trade to the inhabitants and some inter-marriages. According to Horton, the early coastal Cushitic settlements were the origin of Swahili urbanisation. From the Kenyan northern coast, it spread southwards to the rest of the East African coast through Cushitic immigrants or influence.
There is reasonable consensus that some early coastal settlements along the northern coast of Kenya were of Pastoral-Cushitic origin. However, the theory that there were these settlements that provided the beginning of Swahili urbanisation for the whole East African coast has been questioned and even refuted all together (see Chami, 1998; Haaland, 1994; Schmidt, 1994; etc.). Chami (1998) using materials from recent archaeological surveys and excavations in the central coast of Tanzania asserted the existence of Bantu settlements along the coast as early as the first five centuries of the first millennium. He continued that the Bantu settlements evolved between the 6th and 10th century with changing trading opportunities, new technologies, and population growth giving rise to a new form of coastal urbanisation that spread to the northern and southern coasts of East Africa. According to Chami therefore, the early urbanisation along the Kenyan northern coast was influenced by the Bantu urbanisation in the central coast of Tanzania during the second half of the first millennium.
The findings from recent archaeological excavations indeed suggest that the inhabitants of early settlements along the East African coast during the first millennium were Africans. However, what have remained unresolved are the conflicting claims about where the early African urbanisation along the East African coast started and its subsequent spreading to other parts of the coast. The main argument so far has been on whether it originated in the northern Kenyan coast or the central Tanzanian coast by Cushitic and Bantu speaking people respectively. My belief is that such point of influence is unlikely to have existed at that stage of the urbanisation of the East African coast. In other words, African settlements that existed along the East African coast before about 10th century are likely to have evolved independently involving different Bantu and Cushitic groups that had no common cultural or linguistic bases. It is this lack of common cultural tradition that the African settlers of the early settlements along the East African coast are not classified as Swahili but rather the precedents of Swahili people.
If as it is now indicated that Swahili people are descendants of the Africans who settled along the East African coast in the first millennium, the question then is how and when did this process of metamorphosis from non-Swahili to Swahili took place? How did the identity of Swahili people evolve over different historical epochs of the East African coast? Why were the African roots of Swahili people suppressed by the proponents of the Asiatic perspective? These crucial questions about the builders of East African coastal historical towns would be addressed in the proceeding sections of this paper.
Alive-(What Box) Member # 10819
posted
Jari
^This topic has been discussed before. Click the pics for it.
Jari-Ankhamun Member # 14451
posted
quote:Originally posted by Alive-(What Box): A good and honourable endeavor for a thread, Jari, indeed reminiscent of the old forum, compared to the utter ****-heap that this forum seems to have become at a more and more increasing rate.
I digress.
^It is often implied that the architecture is somehow in *** style *** Islamic, but the Tomb of Askia and other monuments like it in reality are just fine examples of the monumental mud-building traditions of the West African Sahel.
^Another Malian monument.
^Dogon.
^Igbo 'pyramids'.
On the subject (and I know this doesn't have anything to do with what I just said) does anyone know the validity in the claim that materials from Mecca were used to build the Askia tomb?
Sorry I didn;t reply earlier but Im not too sure, but I did read that an Architect from Cairo traveled to Timbuctu to help plan the Sankore Universities and made the plans simular to some sacred sites in Mekaa(Mecca).
Also I do realise this tread isn't new but I want to present African Architecture and how it varies and to dispute some common ignorances. People such as White Supremists still claim Africans did'nt use Stone Architecture when in fact Africans were the first to use stone Architecture.
Sundiata Member # 13096
posted
^^Actually your thread is more broad as the one linked to is more specific to West Africa/Islamic architecture. With that said, this thread is a breath of fresh air and much appreciated. On that note:
quote:Sorry I didn;t reply earlier but Im not too sure, but I did read that an Architect from Cairo traveled to Timbuctu to help plan the Sankore Universities and made the plans simular to some sacred sites in Mekaa(Mecca).
Yes, that was ordered under Mansa Musa around 1324. He picked up an Egyptian architect named Abu-Ishaq Ibrahim-es-Saheli on his way home following his famous pilgrimage to Mecca, where he drew inspiration for the design.
Quote:
"Another architectural marvel, the Sankoré Mosque, was built by a wealthy believer in the Mandingue Era (1325?1433). It, too, was demolished and rebuilt from 1578 to 1582 by Imam Al Akib. Having taken the measurements of the Kaaba with a rope during his pilgrimage to Mecca, he wanted to make this shrine in Timbuktu exactly the same size."
akoben08 Member # 15244
posted
quote: With that said, this thread is a breath of fresh air and much appreciated.
Yeh I bet, besides, it was probably created by YOU white nord. LOL
Sundiata Member # 13096
posted
^^This is incoherent. Anyways, stop following me and stop trolling, little boy. Thanx.
Alive-(What Box) Member # 10819
posted
^Yup, I'll believe it when a mod sezit, and even then...
Ako is the real person that's transparent
quote:Originally posted by Sundiata: ^^Actually your thread is more broad as the one linked to is more specific to West Africa/Islamic architecture. With that said, this thread is a breath of fresh air and much appreciated.
Agreed.
Jari, I was just linking you to another thread, which was of the same subject.
I don't think an all inclusive subject like this has ever arisen before. No need for an apology.
^*^ Member # 11484
posted
soothing thread. indeed.
Sundjata Member # 13096
posted
I believe Myra posted about this before also.
The Ndebele people, who are concentrated in the northern region of South Africa and in Zimbabwe, decorate their houses with colorful, geometric designs. Examples of these houses can be seen in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province.
quote:Originally posted by markellion: Great thread, bellow is this video on African fractal geometry and it's very important because it seems to explain how and why many Africans organize their villages and cities the way they do and that they were not "unplanned". It makes sense when you read descriptions of Kerma and other towns
quote:Originally posted by Sundiata: Benin City, prior to British colonialism:
Nice.
quote:Originally posted by Markellion:
The bellow is from a random book I got from the local library "A History of Art in Africa", this is how it describes the city plan of Benin:
quote:A plan of Benin City prior to its sack in 1897 in turn shows the palace at the center, surrounded on most sides by the compounds of lesser chiefs, craftspeople, and other court members. The map and the plan, both of a roughly concentric design, bear out Benin ideology. In Benin thought, the sacred king is the center point. From him, a sequence of circles radiates outward. The first circle includes his chiefs, protectors, and supporters; the next embraces guilds of craftspeople and artists. Next are villagers that pay allegiance and tribute. Farther out still are hostile enemy peoples, and beyond these are the unknowable realms of gods, imagined by the Edo as coextensive with the ocean which they believe encircles their world.
In processions and other ceremonies, the oba is central among his court members, flanked by, with his arms often supported by, designated titleholders. He is transformed by his costume and regalia into a work of art, a walking pyramidal assemblage of a symbolic materials and emblems. He wears cloth woven by his weavers' guild and embellished with many regal motifs. His tunic and headdress are fashioned of coral beads, his armlets of ivory. His hoop skirt creates a wide conical base, expanding him to monumental size, as befits a divinity. His headdress points upward to the celestial realm while adding height to the regal image.
quote:The Portuguese first dealt with the kingdom accordingly, on a more or less equal basis, exchanging ambassadors…
Their highly centralized political structure allowed them to rule over an area 150,000 square km, almost the size of Uganda, stretching south to the Zaire estuary. They acquired a mastery of metallurgy, law, weaving and textiles. The art of the Kongo remains, even today, one of the most elaborate in Africa, making use of wood, cloth, terra cotta and even stones. Kongo not only survived contact with the Portuguese but continued expansion and development into a centralized state until civil wars in the late seventeenth century. The memory of the magnificent kingdom which proclaimed very early the achievements of black men, is still present in the minds of many intellectuals and leaders of Africa today.
Description of Mbanza Kongo:
quote:When the Portuguese ambassador reached Mbanza Kongo in 1491, 7 years before reaching Mombasa, the city was already quite spread out, according to Cuvelier who gives us a detailed description:
The streets were not aligned, nor the houses of the ancient Kongo kingdom, no avenues lined with palms or ornamental trees. Narror paths were running in all directions through the tall grass. The living quarters of the most important people were located close to the king's quarters. Spread out, according to their taste or their fancy, they occupied sometimes quite a considerable space. The houses were made of straw without any ornaments, except inside, where there would be a palm cloth hanging on the wall, representing an antelope or an other animal. The houses of the important people could be distinguished from those of the simple ones, because they were larger and had more painted palm cloths. The houses were surrounded by a fence made from very strong trees: the mingienge, mpesempese, African poplars, cactus (dizza) with a sap which could poison spearheads and war knives. Toward the north, the mountain was crowned with dark woods, a sacred place where the noise of a hatchet was never heard. Palms, baobabs and many trees stood there and this was where the ancient kings were buried. The founder of the kingdom of Ntinu Wene was buried there. To the south, there was a large courtyard called Mbazi ou Mbazi Nkanu, the court of justice, because there, under a huge wild fig tree... which shaded a corner of the place, the kings used to administer justice. It was a large open space where crowds would gather to receive the king's blessing, to watch dances and triumphal parades.
Not far from this public place was the king's residence or enclosure, which was called lumbu by the natives. This enclosure was more than one thousand meters in circumference and was made of pales tied together with lianas...
At the gates. Mavitu were standing the royal guards and some horn blowers. Inside the fence, there was a courtyard; then one could see another fence, in the middle of which was the king's house. One could reach it through a labyrinth. The only difference between this and the other houses, was that this one was more spacious. Inside the royal enclosure, the queen and her residence surrounded by huts with her followers who accompanied her when she left the enclosure.
This description shows well that the urban centre resembled many big villages in central Africa with living quarters spread out and surrounded by hedges and gardens. The layout of the capital was probably not very different from the provincial centre, the clustering of the population resulting essentially from the presence of the king or an important chief. The Mbanza political centers exist only in relation to the holder of power and their evolution is linked. Built of earth, wood, straw and palms, these cities were fragile and their rise and fall was linked to the person who exercised the power. As elsewhere in central Africa, this type of centre gravitates around the king's or the governor's compound with their households, the courtyard and the sacred woods often used as a cemetery for the ancestor's graves. Those different elements put into space the sacred king, a sort of symbolic mechanism which mediates between nature and culture. From this symbolic nucleus, the urban center spreads and stretches following the evocative image of Balandier. The resulting settlement is a city, if one considers the number of people and a village, even if out of proportion, if one considers aspect and structure...
Even if there is a correlation between the development of the Kongo political organization and the birth of elementary urban civilization as noted by Balandier, one must admit that we do not have an urban tradition similar to those of the old West African cities, probably due to the materials used for building...
Like many cities, the location of the major cities in west-central Africa can easily be explained by a favorable ecological context and their origin could be related to the development of long-distance trade and the production of certain commodities. Their development is also connected to the rise of a complex and highly centralized society. And yet, one feels that before the arrival of the Europeans, the major urban centres did not differ significantly from the smaller villages, except for the number of inhabitants. The layout was one of open, scattered garden-cities or villages with a ceremonial and symbolic centre, as in many major tropical centres on other continents.
It seems to me that one should look more into the symbolic nature of those centres than into their rather obvious material explanations. The origin of the town is directly linked to the chief or king figure and the whole layout is a symbolic map of the essential function of the sacred kingship. The power and prestige of the king and of his city was such that long after the collapse of the kingdom, Mbanza Kongo remained the lcus of power, authority and legitimacy, the place where all the matrilineal descent groups lived together with the king. In the eighteenth century, the region of the ruined capital was called ‘Mpemba’ which referred to the ‘white’ of the other world, the ancestors, and the dead.
If one wants to know more about those very ancient and fascinating African garden-cities, one should hope it will soon become possible to carry out systematic archaeological research and that much more attention will be given from an anthropological point of view to rituals and tradition in relation to the sacred kingship/ As de Heusch has shown, in many central African societies, power must be understood in the first place in ritual terms. One must look first to the symbolic order and distinguish it from the political forms that it takes in various times and places.
In addition to the above post:
quote: Vili Kingdom of Loango
Loango city on the Atlantic coast, in a 17th century print from Olfert Dapper’s, Description de lÁfrique (French, German, and original 1665 Dutch editions are evident in the inscriptions). Founded in the 12th century as one of a cluster of Equatorial African kingdoms, Loango was in full engagement with Europeans and global trade by the 16th century. Scenes include: king's palace; wives' compound; crier's tower; royal wine house; royal dining house; public audience court; royal garden; and wives' garden.
The King of Loango, late 17th century
Description on picture: "The King of Loango hardly leaves his palace except for solemn holidays, or for some event of great importance, such as receiving ambassadors from foreign princes, to appease conflicts, to hunt a leopard which has ravaged Loango . . . . He also appears on the first day that his own fields are cultivated, and when his vassals bring their tribute and come to pay him homage. They choose for this occasion a large place in the center of the city, where they raise his throne. It is a seat of black and white wickerwork, covered with mats that are embellished with rare objects" (Dapper, p. 330; our translation).
The city of Loango, in modern-day Republic of Congo, was three miles from the coast. In addition to the King's residence, Loango featured a huge market where artisans, smiths, cap makers, potters, bead makers, carpenters, vintners, fishermen, and canoe makers sold their wares.
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^ Nice thread, even though its topic has discussed many times before (too bad no search engine).
It would be even better if there wasn't so much fuss over what Eurocentrics or racists think anyway. They think alot of things that aren't true. Nevertheless, good points.
Sundjata Member # 13096
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Anyone have any information on African architecture that is external to the continent (besides Moorish architecture)?
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Man,i like the way the buildings just blends naturally with the sorroundings,i know it's in black n white but no trash strewn about the streets, and could someone tell me if that's a crown made of snails the brother is sporting?.
thegaul Member # 16198
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Bricks in the making(West Africa)
In Djenne
Gondar
and Kilwa Kisiwani
thegaul Member # 16198
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quote:Originally posted by Jari-Ankhamun: Eurocentrics use European forms to compare to Africans forms and Afrocentics usally find the most European looking forms of African Architecture to "Defend" their positions.
You have fallen right into the "eurocentric" trap. Buildings like the ones in Gondar and Kilwa were built by locals with NO knowledge of the "european form", therefore how can it be "european" in the first place? Be careful as to what you put the "european" tag on.
Jari-Ankhamun Member # 14451
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quote:Originally posted by thegaul:
quote:Originally posted by Jari-Ankhamun: Eurocentrics use European forms to compare to Africans forms and Afrocentics usally find the most European looking forms of African Architecture to "Defend" their positions.
You have fallen right into the "eurocentric" trap. Buildings like the ones in Gondar and Kilwa were built by locals with NO knowledge of the "european form", therefore how can it be "european" in the first place? Be careful as to what you put the "european" tag on.
As an Arch. Major I can tell you that the forms tagged European are what usually defines Arch. in most peoples mind and has been for a while. This is why when you open any Architecture book most wont even include forms found in Africa. My opinion is that African architectue can teach us just as any other nation.
This thread was created becuase people believe Africans only built huts, when Africa is full of all types of froms of Architecture. I never said froms in Gondar were European??? Im saying Eurocentrics will pull out a Gothic Cathedral and compare it to the Mosque in Jenne...with out knowing that the Gothic Cathedrals were built off many different NON European Architectural principals and styles.
also lets not stop in Kilwa or Gondar...What about Zanzibar, Timbuctu, Fez, Merrakesh..did you know that the Architecture of the Almohad period was the most influential in the Moorish period and many Almohad forms are still used to define Spanish Architecture...???
Africa deserves its rightful spot as an innovator of Architecture...
Jari-Ankhamun Member # 14451
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more Forms...
Personally I think its rather ignorant to compare Architecture as a sign of Superior culture...If that were the case the Ancients were way superior than us becuase they were able to organize and plan monuments like the Pyramids, Machu Piccu, The Alhambra...etc. without Machines...
Africa deserves its place like I said and It angers me that we dont see Images like these on book shelves..
Jari-Ankhamun Member # 14451
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More Styles...Zanzibar
Jari-Ankhamun Member # 14451
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to Alive.... Africans come in all styles and looks...
ackee Member # 16371
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Recommend this book,African Cities And Towns before The European Conguest, lite reading.
Marc Washington Member # 10979
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. . [Jari writes] "... I can tell you that the forms tagged European are what usually defines Arch."
[Marc writes] I'd say that what we call "European architecture" as is found in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire (so, pre and post Caesar) was created before white incursion from origins in the Russian Steppes. Whites (as Caesar) did supposedly "build" but used "slaves" (pheontypic) Africans known variously as the non-white portion of those of the Roman Republic, and the non-white portion of those who were called Celts and citizens of Gaul (all one-in-the-same).
Caesar "built" the Colliseum but used over ten thousand (Africans) slaves. Apia built the Apian Road but used tens of thousands of (slaves) Africans where over 50,000 (indigenous, i.e. African) soldiers fighting agaist the white Romans generals (as the pitiful soldiers were mostly African) were crucified.
Look at the earliest images of Christ, St. Paul, St. Peter, Gabriel, and other biblical figures in England, Rome, France, Germany. Surely until the 4th century virtually all these figures were African. When the Germanic tribes came into Bohemia (Prague), Rome, France, etc. and saw the prestigious positions held by the affluent priests and bishops, out went the African and in came the European. And this event marked the outset of white Christianity.
The architecture of the classical and Medieval buildings including the churches and cathedrals I would hold were created by Africans and this would include the so-called "European" arch.
I have many images of early Christs, St. Peters and such and perhaps one day soon will make a web page showing them. And in instances the buildings they are found on and in adorning (including ceilings) them.
. .
Evergreen Member # 12192
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The Fortress of Buhen, Egypt
Evergreen Member # 12192
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Tarikhu Farrar. Building Technology and Settlement Planning in a West African Civilization: Precolonial Akan Cities and Towns. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 1996. xi + 217 pp. $89.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-7734-2262-9.
Reviewed by Eric Ross (Cartographer) Published on H-Africa (August, 1997)
"The study of African history and culture has yet to achieve liberation from stereotypes and prejudices rooted in a colonialist and racist worldview" (p.. 195).
Tarikhu Farrar is intent on debunking the myths and refuting the presuppositions which continue to underpin contemporary research on African architecture. The existing corpus on African architecture includes works by architects and anthropologists. The author is mostly concerned with problems in the former category. As late as 1975, for instance, the prestigious Electra/Rizzoli coffee-table collection could unselfconsciously use the title Primitive Architecture for its volume relating to Africa, Native America, and Oceania.[1]
The term 'primitive' as applied to West African architecture translates into the presupposition that the circular house type (primitive) must precede the rectangular one (advanced), and that vegetable building material (primitive) precedes the use of clay (advanced). Concomitant to the notion of "primitive," according to Farrar, is the notion of "indigenous"; hence the circular form and vegetable construction are qualified as "indigenous" while the rectangular form and clay construction become "exogenous" elements which have to be explained in terms of "diffusion" from more "advanced" civilizations.
In order to refute these stereotypes, Farrar presents a study of precolonial (traditional) Akan urban settlements. The study opens with a review of theories about Akan architecture (Chapter Two). Next is a section on the structure and hierarchy of Akan cities and towns (Chapter Three). The center-peice of the book is a study of building technology based on original field work (Chapter Four), followed by a survey of data from other sources (Chapter Five). Finally, the conclusion (Chapter Six) offers a reconceptualization of the question of African urban form.
The emphasis of Farrar's research is on material culture and especially on technology, i.e., building materials and methods of construction. The Bono and, to a lesser extent, the Asante and Accra Plain tradions of Ghana are studied from the bottom up. That is to say that Farrar's original research consists of extensive interviews in the field (in Nkoransa Traditional Area, Brong-Ahafo Region, over several building seasons) with people actually involved in house-building today. Interviews were also conducted with elders who have knowledge of former building techniques.
Farrar confronts the data collected in the field with three additional sources of information: archeological (Kintampo, Bono Manso, Begho), documentary (descriptions of early European visitors) and oral (the vernacular oral histories--as opposed to the mythologies or royal narratives).
Emphasis is on domestic architecture and local know-how. In the transition from "traditional" to "modern," which has often led to the replacement of superior local materials with inferior imported ones (p. 110), Farrar laments the fact that the new construction methods and materials (cement blocks, sheet roofing) have destroyed local knowledge and skills without replacing them with anything of similar usefulness (p. 104).
The conclusions Farrar draws are the following. First, there is a strong continuity of building construction in Ghana since the neolithic period (the Kintampo culture, c. 1500-2000 BCE). "Timber and clay" construction is clearly attested at all periods where there is data and there are grounds for considering "coursed clay" construction (on stone foundation) to be just as ancient. In other words, there is little evidence to uphold the notion of "primitive" vegetable versus later "advanced" clay construction.
Secondly, on the evidence provided, there are no grounds for explaining Akan architecture as a synthesis of Sudanic (Muslim and therefore "advanced") traditions penetrating the forest culture ("primitive" and "indigenous"), as expounded by Prussin.[2] While contacts and borrowing are not ruled out, the evidence suggests that Akan building technologies evolved locally. The only element of Akan architecture which Farrar ascribes without hestation to Muslim influence is the design of Kumasi's domestic toilets (p. 183).
The orientation of Farrar's study is in keeping with recent archeological thinking on the question of African urban traditions as exemplified by Connah.[3] Rather than the mostly futile search for the "origins" of African city and state formation (usually understood in terms of diffusion), emphasis has shifted to consideration of local resources and needs. Up until recently, the presupposition of the inherent inferiority and backwardness of Africa had hindered this line of investigation.
Students of African architecture will find Farrar's concluding chapter, "The Need for a Reconceptualization of African Settlement Forms and Building Technology," of interest. It presents a comparative study of the perceptions of European and African urban planning in Western historiography as revealed through, among other things, choice of vocabulary. For example, at what point do "wattle and daub huts" become "timber-frame, plastered cottages" (p. 194)?
Farrar demonstrates how the Akan term 'oman' (translated as "city-state") designates an entity which is in every way equivalent to the classical Greek term 'polis'. Furthermore, the dichotomy between "primitive" and "advanced" in Western academic literature is seen to rest mostly on: (a) the use of "hard" building materials (bake brick, stone), and (b) the construction of prestige buildings (temples, cathedrals). When the ordinary living conditions and habitations of the masses are considered, and when the political, social and economic functioning of entire cities and their hinterlands ("oman") are analyzed, the term 'primitive' can apply just as well to medieval Britain as to precolonial Ghana.
By concentrating exclusively on material culture, the author intentionally avoids discussion of cosmogony and the spiritual world which characterizes recent anthropological studies of West African architecture--see for instance Blier's work on the Batammaliba.[4] Likewise, the anomalous architecture of Asante fetish houses is not discussed by Farrar, though it it is an important feature in the work of his nemesis, Swithenbank.[5]
The title of the book is slightly misleading in that the section dealing with settlement planning is less developed than the section on building technology. The author relies less on original field work than on existing published sources.
In terms of its technical quality, Farrar's book does not live up to the standards of other publications, though I am not sure if ultimate responsibility for this lies with the author or the publisher. The illustrations of building techniques and settlement layouts are, at best, sketchy, and one begs to see photos or sketches of the different building types being discussed (mpapa-dan, tare-dan, etc.). Also, could some provision have been made to include the illustrations of settlement and habitation plans previously published in the works on Akan archeology, architecture and art history cited in the text (for example, Bowdich's 1819 map of Kumasi discussed on p. 68)? Without ready access to these figures the reader is left in something of a lurch.
One has only to compare Farrar's book to those of Ojo[6] and especially Moughtin[7] and Domian[8] to understand how effective illustrations can carry a text of this nature. Like the illustrations, the single map (p. iii) is woefully inadequate for the task of situating the phenomena under discussion. Without necessarily indulging in the lavishness which characterizes current French publications on African architecture,[9] surely some effort towards providing the reader with proper illustrations should be considered before any re-edition.
In the absence of an Akan architectural history--someting which Farrar states is impossible to write given the present state of research--what we now have is an excellent analysis of Akan building technology within a historical perspective.
Notes:
[1]. Guidoni, E., Primitive Architecture, Electra/Rizzoli, New York, 1975.
[2]. Prussin, L., Hatumere, University of California Press, 1986.
[3]. Connah, G., African Civilizations, Cambridge University Press, 1987.
[4]. Blier, S. P., The Anatomy of Architecture, University of Chicago Press, 1987.
[5]. Swithenbank, M., Ashanti Fetish Houses, Ghana Universities Press, 1969.
[6]. Ojo, G. J. A., Yoruba Palaces, London University Press, 1966.
[7]. Moughtin, J. C., Hausa Architecture, Ethnographica, London, 1985.
[9]. See Sinou, A. Porto-Novo, Paranthese, Marseille, 1988, and Le comptoir de Ouidah, Karthala, Paris, 1995
Jari-Ankhamun Member # 14451
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Bump...More tommorow...
The_Killer_Wolofi Member # 16624
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quote:Originally posted by Jari-Ankhamun: more Forms...
Personally I think its rather ignorant to compare Architecture as a sign of Superior culture...If that were the case the Ancients were way superior than us becuase they were able to organize and plan monuments like the Pyramids, Machu Piccu, The Alhambra...etc. without Machines...
Africa deserves its place like I said and It angers me that we dont see Images like these on book shelves..
Correct and that is the sad DEFINING point of Afro American low self esteem. They live in the White man's land and judge EVERYTHING prima facie on the asthetics of the architecture and if there is something in Africa that don't look like EGYPT or anything in Europe they throw it out in the trash and call it *unsophisticated* etc.
In order for people of African descent to be true Africanists they have to throw out the self hate and incorrect perception of AFrica and the cultures therein.
Sundjata Member # 13096
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Here's an excellent and extensive photo gallery of Djenne, Mali with various shots of the local architecture. Someone else posted this originally in another thread but I forgot who and where.
quote:Originally posted by The_Killer_Wolofi: Correct and that is the sad DEFINING point of Afro American low self esteem...
In order for people of African descent to be true Africanists they have to throw out the self hate and incorrect perception of AFrica and the cultures therein.
The same kind of ideas were put into translations of ancient literature. The continuing idea of architecture being introduced by Muslims has roots in mistranslations. The idea that Mansa Musa brought back people to teach the Malians architecture was also on the BBC "The story of Africa" program. All ancient literature has been mistranslated in the 19th and 20th centuries to fit with colonial racial hierarchy ideas
In other translations Ibn Khaldun wrote that Abu Ishak brought architecture because the natives were ignorant of the use of it. This older translation says he simply brought a model.
This kind of distortion of literature should be taken into consideration when it comes to destroying stereotypes. The bellow book probably also has many mistranslations and the author is biased and should also be viewed with suspicion
"The Negroland of the Arabs examined and explained" 1841
quote:When the conquest of the West (by the Arabs) was completed, and merchants began to penetrate into the interior, they saw no nation of the Blacks so mighty as Ghanah, the dominions of which extended westward as far as the Ocean. The King's court was kept in the city of Ghanah, which, according to the author of the Book of Roger (El Idrisi), and the author of the Book of Roads and Realms (El Bekri), is divided into two parts, standing on both banks of the Nile, and ranks among the largest and most populous cities of the world.
Mansa Musa, on his return, conceived the idea of building himself a fine palace. Abu Ishak showed him a model, and erected the edifice, with plaster and all kinds of ornaments, for which he received 12,000 mithkals of gold. Mansa Musa maintained an intimate and friendly correspondence with Sultan Abu-l-Hasan, of Al-Maghreb, and reigned twenty-five years.
markellion Member # 14131
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quote:Originally posted by Sundjata: Anyone have any information on African architecture that is external to the continent (besides Moorish architecture)?
Part of a program "Engines of our ingenuity"
No. 820: SHOTGUN HOMES AND PORCHES by John H. Lienhard
But Vlach looks more closely at old records. He traces the shotgun house to the early 1800s. Then he finds older shotgun houses in the sugar-growing plantation islands -- in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Finally, he finds that same distinctive design in West Africa....
....The shotgun house builders in Haiti had written African motifs into their exterior timber framing. Now shotgun houses in New Orleans sprouted American gingerbread trimming. By the mid-19th century, many are positively Victorian in appearance....
...When the cost of wood fell during the late 1800s, the shotgun house did indeed become the best way the poor could keep a roof over their heads. But, by then, shotgun houses had added a new element to the American architectural vocabulary.
You see, shotgun houses gave us the southern porch. We didn't previously have porches like that in America. Like the shotgun house itself, southern porches are now all over America.
So the next time you see those rows of small linear houses in poor neighborhoods, consider what you're really seeing. These are the remains of an African technology that reached considerable elegance among people of middle means in the 19th century.
And it's a technology that left an indelible and formative mark on our landscape. It propagated that outward-looking sign of community over America -- the front porch from which we've greeted friends and neighbors ever since.
I'm John Lienhard, at the University of Houston, where we're interested in the way inventive minds work.
prmiddleeastern Member # 14038
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quote:Originally posted by Jari-Ankhamun: Many people make the ASSumption that Africa is void of Architecture and that African live in Mud Huts, unorganized buildings...I have read 100 times of supposed Afrocentrists and Eurocentrics make arguments based on ignorant(AMERICANS) and obviously moronic and biased ideas of Africa based on what they see on T.V.
These include sub-sahran Africans did'nt use stone materials, Africans did'nt plan cities, Africans did'nt contribute to Archtecture...LOL.
Eurocentrics use European forms to compare to Africans forms and Afrocentics usally find the most European looking forms of African Architecture to "Defend" their positions.
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indeed reminiscent of the old forum, compared to the utter ****-heap that this forum seems to have become at a more and more increasing rate.![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
