Provocative Places: Built but Belonging Nowhere: Modern Built Environment vs. Indigenous Identity in Africa

Provocative Objects / Spaces

14 May, 2025 -

Across African cities, glass skyscrapers glisten in tropical heat, showcasing aspirations of global modernity. Boulevards, luxury malls, and gated residences signal progress, yet this architectural bravado often fails to reflect the cultural and spiritual lives of the residents. Imported urban aesthetics rooted in colonial legacies dominate design standards, creating a disconnect between physical spaces and local identity. Colonial planners imposed European urban models onto African communities, overriding local settlement patterns shaped by centuries of social, environmental, and spiritual understanding. Post-independence leaders, keen to project national progress, perpetuated these imported ideals, unintentionally reinforcing colonial hierarchies.

This spatial mismatch isn't merely aesthetic; it's profoundly psychological. Drawing from Frantz Fanon's theory of internalised colonialism and Homi Bhabha's concept of mimicry, Africa’s urban spaces have become places where colonised minds seek validation through imitation. By embracing foreign design, cities reinforce internalised beliefs that external ideas are superior and local traditions inferior. Psychologically, this fosters mistrust of local culture, eroding collective identity and self-worth. Modern urban designs often ignore how Africans socialise. Vibrant open-air markets, traditionally hubs of economic and communal life, are increasingly replaced by enclosed, air-conditioned malls. Such malls, from Nairobi’s Garden City to Dakar’s Sea Plaza, replicate Western consumerist ideals, sidelining informal traders and spontaneous interactions essential to community bonding. While traditional markets foster mutual dependency, malls anonymise interactions, fragmenting community ties.

Decision-making in urban development underscores power imbalances. Political elites, investors, and aspiring middle-class groups drive urban visions without meaningful participation from informal communities, market traders, or traditional authorities. Indigenous spatial concepts are dismissed as outdated, while foreign designs are glorified as modern. Consequently, the built environment becomes alienating, excluding those who best understand local needs and significance. High-rise developments across Africa mirror European and American aesthetics, using materials like concrete, steel, and glass without adaptation to local climates or contexts. These materials themselves aren't problematic; it's their insensitive use that creates issues. Innovators like Burkina Faso’s Francis Kéré and Nigeria’s Kunlé Adeyemi show how contemporary materials can honour African frameworks by integrating traditional patterns and responding sensitively to climates and practices. Yet such thoughtful examples remain rare.

Iconic buildings like Senegal’s Monument de la Renaissance Africaine symbolise artistic ambition but lack the Indigenous symbolism seen in historical structures like Ethiopia’s rock-hewn churches or Mali’s mud mosques. Modern public architecture, detached from local symbolism, offers limited emotional resonance, deepening feelings of estrangement. Architectural education reinforces this disconnect. African curricula heavily emphasise Euro-American design traditions, overlooking Indigenous spatial wisdom and construction methods. Students learn about Le Corbusier or Frank Lloyd Wright, rarely engaging with local knowledge. Professional success becomes synonymous with mastering foreign standards rather than understanding local context, producing architects unable to meaningfully connect with their cultural heritage. Traditional African homes, from North African riads to West African compounds, historically nurtured community by centering communal spaces. Modern housing estates, however, favour privacy and individualism, eroding communal bonds essential for social cohesion. Economic pressures compound this issue. Banks and investors, oriented towards global standards, perceive Indigenous designs as risky investments, further perpetuating culturally disconnected developments. This economic bias leads developers to replicate international models rather than innovate locally. Spaces shape identity and culture. Urban environments disconnected from local values risk alienating inhabitants, fostering physical presence without emotional belonging. This alienation is evident where luxurious gated communities neighbour crowded informal settlements, exacerbating social divides. Elders struggle to adapt to isolated apartments, youth grow disconnected from communal traditions, and generational divides deepen. Cities become places to navigate rather than inhabit, fostering cultural amnesia and weakened social bonds.

Despite these challenges, Africa’s design future doesn't have to choose between modernity and tradition. Urban planning can integrate community participation, protecting spaces like markets, courtyards, and sacred sites. For example, Nairobi’s Karura Forest can be simultaneously an ecological and culturally significant site, reconnecting urban dwellers with Indigenous heritage. Education can embrace both global standards and local Indigenous knowledge, preparing architects to confidently reference local culture alongside international trends. Community-driven public art and installations can further ensure spaces reflect local narratives. Technological innovation, like digital mapping of traditional spaces or virtual reality recreations, offers contemporary ways to explore and adapt ancestral knowledge.

Addressing the tension between imported aesthetics and Indigenous lived experiences requires recognising urban spaces as vital reflections of cultural identity. African cities, if genuinely designed for their inhabitants, must foster belonging rather than alienation. True modernity doesn't necessitate cultural erasure; rather, authentic progress occurs when spaces resonate deeply with the people they serve. Ultimately, Africa’s future cities must balance global aspirations with cultural authenticity, building not just impressive spaces, but communities deeply rooted in their identity. After all, if urban environments fail to speak the languages of their inhabitants, whose future are we truly constructing?

Dr Yaw Ofosu-Asare is an academic at Southern Cross University, Australia, and a Communication Design Studio Lead at RMIT. Ofosu-Asare also serves as a Teaching Associate at the University of Melbourne. Their research focuses on decolonising design education, African indigenous practices, and critical theory. https://yofosuasare.com/

Started by the DHS Ambassadors in 2022, the Design History Society’s Provocative Objects and Places blog series looks at spaces and objects that challenge and confront us as design historians.

Past topics have ranged from the ancient Colosseum in Rome to the ultramodern Antilia in Mumbai; pink razors and Barbies to Lalique’s Bacchantes vase and nineteenth-century asylum photography. The full collection of previous posts can be found here: https://www.designhistorysociety.org/blog/category/provocative-objects-spaces

We invite submissions for guest blog posts from students, early career researchers, and established academics to those with a general interest in design history. Post can be on any object or place from any era, anywhere in the world, which in some way incites discussion and debate. Post should be 500-800 words in length, accompanied by at least one image with associated credits and clearances, and a short bio.

Please send to the DHS Senior Administrator, Dr Jenna Allsopp designhistorysociety@gmail.com