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BUILDINGS IN WEST AFRICA
Gando primary school, Burkina Faso: (By: Kere Architecture) Clay mud construction with a roof pulled away from the space.
Makoko Floating school: (By: Kunle Adeyemi) A wood structure on the coast with a pitched roof.
The central market at koudougou: Use of Nubian techniques of architecture and vault construction.
Inno-native House, Ghana: (By: joe osae addo) An innovative native designed building translating the "sense of place".
Independence square Accra, Ghana: A black star square Arch acting as an icon in one of the main squares in Ghana.
Great mosque of Djenne, Mali: Largest mud structure built in the world, one of the wonders of Africa.
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SOCIAL SYSTEM IN WEST AFRICA Traditional African systems are organised in hierarchy. There are 3 types of these hierarchies. Elderhood, defined as “Status—respected position—and power belong to old and established groups rather than to the new.”
Servitude, “ Complex webs of patronage are part of the structure of social and political life in both traditional and modern communities. grew into a system called caste”
Rank, “Herarchies within the courts of kings and emperors, as aristocrates competed for power and wealth” In West Africa, the most common is the Servitude system.
Why this level? It’s not been documented in any formal account as to why they chose this level. However, according to the names of the castes, It’s thought that labor was the reason behind the system.
Non casted
Casted
30%
Non-casted people make up about 70% of the population while casted-people make up the remaining 30%. Even though people were divided in castes, some castes had better reputation and level than the others. (e.g: warriors, Smiths whose occupation are associated with magic via fire)
70%
Modern social system The caste is system is still somehow a reality in west Africa, and in some areas it still decides who can marry who. However, due to influence of religions like Islam and christianity that advice against discrimination, It’s becoming of less importance to judge people merely on their caste. Agree or not agree with the castes system, we can’t blame our ancestors for such division, since we still do this in some sense. We still have the need to define and stereotype the other.
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RELIGION IN WEST AFRICA Islam is dominant in north Africa, Christianity in south Africa while the area in between is characterized by inhabitants having different beliefs and various religions. Sufism is the main Islamic sect in west Africa and that is obvious in many religious buildings (e.g: Touba mosque in Senegal). Religion also has been a major influence on art, culture and philosophy.
POLITICS OF WEST AFRICA
Touba mosque
Civil war violence in Liberia and Sierra Leone, and the relatively recent traumas of colonial rule: all examples of the troubling features that people commonly associate with West African societies. At closer inspection, however, a more complex picture emerges. In this picture, West Africa boasts a historical legacy of one of the most developed precolonial forms of statehood on the continent, the Sokoto Caliphate, as well as contemporary examples of ambitious regional integration.
GEOGRAPHY OF WEST AFRICA West Africa is bordered in the west and south by the Atlantic Ocean, in the north by the Sahara Desert, and in the east by the 10° longitude line. Due to the mutable borders of the Sahara, West Africa must be defined more through its cultural identity than perpetually changing artificial boundaries. This region is bisected by the African Transition Zone, which borders the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. The main physical features include the Sahara Desert and the Niger River. The Cameroon Highlands are located on the eastern border between Nigeria and Cameroon. At 4,100 miles long, the Nile River is the longest, while the Congo River is Africa’s second longest at 2,922 miles in length. The Niger River is Africa’s third-longest river and extends more than 2,600 miles.
West Africa Geographic map
ART IN WEST AFRICA when Ife sculptures and Benin arts were discovered in west Africa, it forced people to change how they viewed African art, and that there’s more to African heritage than Ancient Egyptian art. Somehow despite the geographical barriers and time barriers, both west african art and ancient Egyptian art shared similarities and celebrated differences.
They are similar in their jaws, rounded facial structure,face expressions and features. scarification on Ife is shown, king Narmer is from Sudan region where scarification was observed but his sculpture doesn't reveal that. Ife man
King Narmer
They both used to cover the hair of their women, Benin always cover their hair with headdress, while Egyptian display hair styled wigs. Both have small features like nose and lips.However, on left the lips protrude more and is slightly bigger and rounder.
Benin royalty
Queen Meritaten
Here you can celebrate differences; lips of ife man is more full. Realism; most Egyptian kings were completely out of shape, however they sculpted them into what they would like to be seen,in opposite to the protruding stomach of the king, maybe as a sign of wealth Ife royalty
Ramses ll
Exhibition of difference between beauty in West Africa and North Africa. Fat distribution through out their face; Ife woman have more rounded features in her cheek region , while Nefertiti has more sharper features specially around jawline and cheek.
Royalty woman
Queen Nefertiti
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ARCHITECTURE AND MUSIC "Architecture is a frozen music." Words said by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe trying to explain the relationship between architecture and music. It goes back to more than 500 years when we started to relate Architecture to Music. Rhythm, Harmony, Texture, Proportion, Dynamics.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Those are the keywords that can be translated into what we call form which is the final product of both, Architecture and Music; As by definition, Music: Vocal or instrumental sounds or mix of both combined together in such a way to produce a beauty of form and expression of emotion. Architecture: The process and the product of planning and designing, working in the material of form of buildings. So, let me first explain what form is; Simply, form is the configuration of something. If we have a small look around Music and Architecture, we'd find that both are based mainly on 3 parts; For Music; There is a composer, a listener and musical work. Same for Architecture; There is a designer, a user and Architectural work. Focusing our vision on Africa - West Africa -; If we go back to the instruments used, we'd find drums - like Djembe, the talking drums -, Balafon, strings - like Kora, Ngoni, Adjalin, Xalam -. And as for Schema Theory, one knows as a result of his past experience; So, if we have it for us - in Egypt -, for those instruments, once you hear them, you'd feel the sound of Oud, Qanun, Marimba which are so familiar to Egyptians and actually instruments that gives our music its identity and uniqueness. And then as everything, architecture affects and is affected by everything around it, what makes our music different and known through some instruments among many other instruments known, makes our architecture as well, once you see a building, you can relate where it can be located.
Alexander Smaga's Excessive Music Hall Explaining the relationship
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CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE IN WEST AFRICA
CULTURE IN WEST AFRICA Food: Once again, we found similarities between Egypt and West Africa, and this time is in their traditional food. Okra Stew soup and spinach stew soup which are well known traditional dishes in West Africa, are also famous Egyptian dishes known as "Tabikh". Also, the "assorted meat" happens to be very very famous in both regions.
Okra soup
Okra soup Spinach stew
Assorted meat
Tabikh
Lingual patterns: Common proverbs are considered a very important cultural aspect that Egypt share with West Africa. For example, in Senegal they say: ""من يثر عش الدبابير عليه أن يجيد الركض In Egypt we say: ""اللي يحضر العفريت يصرفه And both mean that we should think wisely before deciding to join a battle. In Burkina Faso they say: ""السمك يسق بالماء وهو ذاته الذي سيطبخ فيه In Egypt we say: ""منها وإليها نعود And both mean that human beings are created from the mud of Earth and they will go back to it after their death.
CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE IN WEST AFRICA
TIMBUKTU Abstract In the ancient Malian city of Timbuktu, people suffer from regime of terror imposed by occupants calling themselves jihadists who are determined to control their faith. Music, cigarettes and soccer have been banned, and severe punishments were inflicted on those who disobeyed. Not far from the city but away from the jihadists, a cattle herder Kidan lives peacefully with his wife Satima, their daughter Toya and their shepherd Issan.
Reflection The movie presents different scenes showing how the people suffered from the extremist jihadis and the conflicts between them starting from the man with the long pants to the woman selling fish till Satima. However, what was so vivid is that the jihadis themselves had self-conflicts; they banned playing football but the kept talking about it and how Messi scored the goal, they banned cigarettes yet they smoked secretly. Another thing about the movie is that it shows contradictions. The people live in a sub-saharan world yet most of them had cell phones, as if they were suspended between the ancient and the post modern worlds. Also, their persistence on what they love appeared in some scenes. When the woman who was taken because she was singing kept singing as they lashed her, and when the boys were playing football with no ball. The thing that adds to the movie is that it didn’t just mention the extremists and their horrible actions but it gave them humanity and it delivers also a good picture of Islam through the Imam.
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BOOK REVIEW: EVERYDAY IS FOR THE THIEF - Teju Cole ABSTRACT: “The book follows a young Nigerian writer as he returns to his homeland after coming of age abroad, Cole is sketching a portrait of Nigeria over the course of twenty-seven fast-moving chapters, whether as he’s discussing the rise of internet cafes in Nigeria, critiquing political corruption, or reflecting on what the nation’s future might look like.”
REFLECTIONS: ARCHITECTURAL
Cole speaks about the architecture of the city in many occasions, starting with when he first lands and see the Airport building, so depressing with its rigid modern vibes “..All that is worst about architecture of the seventies, with the endless rows of small windows”(cole). then he goes to the place where he’s staying and he can’t ignore the march of ugly buildings around him and the many trees that have been trimmed, causing the soul of Nigeria with its primeval effect to wash away. He describes the market as the essence of the city, that’s always alive with both danger and possibility and I don’t think we can agree more. Moreover, he describes Modern nowadays Nigeria as imposing- without a soul city. Where worship houses are gigantic and in competition for prestige, towering in the city’s skyline. SOCIAL on a social level. you can imagine how similar the city is to Cairo,with the terribly rude corruption and endless bribes, the buses full of angry conductors,the bumper stickers on the bodies of cars and people’s claps when an airplane lands. Something feels so familiar about the city he’s describing. A picture so beautifully tragic is painted in this book, illustrated with Cole’s own black and white photographs. You realise that somehow we’re made of the same sorrows& we can meet in a middle point that is hope. Nigeria and Egypt - probably most of Africa as well- will forever be connected by a sequence of events. Starting from the powerful empires of the past, to their failures, and then going downhill with colonies.Our history is compensated,taken away from us, stored in their own museums. Even after we are freed we’re still somehow in chains of corruption and un-education. But hopefully one day we’ll also share the end point of setting free.
References:
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Economic Growth and Trade | West Africa Regional. (2015, November 23). Retrieved from https://www.usaid.gov/west-africa-regiona/economic-growth-and-trade 10 Most Sought After Jobs in Africa. (2018, April 15). Retrieved from https://www.africa.com/top-10-most-sought-after-jobs-in-africa/ Statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.afdb.org/en/knowledge/statistics/
Agai, J.M., 2014, ‘Did the ancient Egyptians migrate to ancient Nigeria?’, Verbum et
Ecclesia 35(1), Art. #832, 6 pages. http://dx.doi. org/10.4102/ve.v35i1.832
News. (2015, February 10). الحكمة لﻺنسان من وحي الحيوان:اﻷمثال الشعبية اﻹفريقية. Retrieved from https://ar.haberler.com/arabic-news652655/?fbclid=IwAR0dUwiIWnlLE6HAaN4lBQUQn2JrxBsCso8fmS9wTnosdVwErGZ7BB-Hsk The Relationship Between Music and Architecture. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://blogs.lt.vt.edu/danabrink/2014/05/10/the-relationship-between-music-andarchitecture/
World Regional Geography: People, Places and Globalization. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-worldgeography/chapter/7-3-westafrica/?fbclid=IwAR3xcIY4fYB3ROAusxC9wakX22HUcRzvSg8fYDSCsuztp7RtFBb GiuAZ2kk