Architecture and Politics in Africa: Book Launch in Accra, 20 September 2022
Please join us for our book launch at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana. Some of the book’s editors and authors will talk about their contributions, followed by reflections from Prof Nnamdi Elleh (School of Architecture and Planning, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa) and Prof Lloyd Amoah (Department of Political Science, University of Ghana).
There will be a reception after the launch.
When: 16.00, Tuesday 20 September 2022
Where: Institute of African Studies, Anne Jiagee Road, University of Ghana, Legon
No need to book.
Architecture and Politics in Africa is an innovative study of state politics, identity and buildings. It sheds new light on the links between the materials and ideas that shape contemporary life in Africa.
Buildings shape politics in the ways they define communities, enable economic activity, reflect political ideas, and impact state-society relations. They are materially and symbolically interwoven with the everyday lives of elites and citizens, as well global flows of money, goods, and contracts.
Yet, to date, there has been no research that explicitly connects debates about Africa's domestic and international politics with the study of architecture. This innovative book fills this gap, providing a new and compelling reading of the politics of identity in sub-Saharan Africa through an examination of some of its most significant buildings.
Using case studies from nine countries across sub-Saharan Africa, this volume reveals how they are commissioned and built, how they enable elites to project power, and how they form a basis for popular conceptions of the state. Exploring a diverse range of buildings including parliaments, airports, prisons, ministries, regional institutions, libraries, universities, shopping malls, public housing, cathedrals and palaces, the contributors suggest a innovative perspective on African politics, identity and urban development.
This book will be a compelling reference for scholars and students of African politics, development studies and city life in its elaboration of and challenges to established concepts and arguments about the relationship between material objects and political ideas.
Architecture and Politics in Africa: making, living and imagining identities through buildings is published by James Currey, and is the first in the landmark new series Making and Remaking the African City: studies in urban Africa, edited by Taibat Lawanson, Marie Huchzermeyer and Ola Uduku.
It is available as a free download here, and in bookshops from September 2022, priced £25. You can find more information on the book here.