African Modernism and Its Afterlives

Paul Wenzel Geissler teaches social anthropology at the University of Oslo. With Lachenal, Manton, Tousignant and other scholars and artists he published Traces of the Future (2016). With Ruth Prince, he is currently studying remains and afterlives of epidemics in East Africa, revisiting their book on AIDS in Kenya, The Land Is Dying (2010).Nina Berre is an architect and architectural historian, and Professor and Head of Institute of Form, theory and history at the Oslo School of Architecture and design. She was director of Architecture at the National Museum of Art, Architecture and design in Norway from 2010 to 2018.Johan Lagae is Full Professor in 20th Century Architectural History at Ghent University. His research focuses on colonial and postcolonial architecture and urbanisation in Central-Africa.

• List of FiguresIntroduction    Recognizing African ModernismsPaul Wenzel Geissler, Johan Lagae and Nina BerrePART 1:    AFRICAN MODERNISMKarl Henrik Nøstvik: Remnants of Nordic AidNina BerreAfrica’s ‘Lone Star’: Building ‘New Liberia’ in the Context of Post-war AfricaIga PerzynaCountryside Reconstruction in Postcolonial Africa: The Ujamaa ExperienceKarl Otto EllefsenTechnocratic Colonial Housing Policies and Reductive Modernism in Eastlands, NairobiPeter MakachiaTransnational Exchanges in Postcolonial Zambia: School Buildings at the Intersection of Architectural, Political and Economic GlobalizationKim De RaedtForms of Freedom: Soviet Gifts in Postcolonial KenyaRuth PrinceGeorg Lippsmeier and His Tropenbau: Salesmanship and Pragmatic ModernismAntoni FolkersIsrael/Africa: The Laboratories of (Post)colonial ModernityHaim Yacobi‘Tout le Congo est un Chantier’: Notes on the Archive of a (Post)colonial Construction FirmJohan Lagae and Robby FivezINTERLUDERemnants of Nordic Aid in Africa: The Zambia World Bank Educational ProjectsMette TronvollRemnants of Nordic Aid in Africa: The KICC & Fishery Station by Architect Karl Henrik Nøstvik in AfricaIwan BaanPART 2:    AFTERLIVES‘Kenya Grew from Here’: Property and History in a Nairobi Housing EstateConstance SmithGrave Reservations: Nigerian Literature and ‘European Reservations’ during DecolonizationTim LivseyThe Legacy of Nordic Expertise in Postcolonial Housing Schemes in NairobiTom J. C. AnyambaPrivatization and the Reshaping of the Recreational Landscape of the Industrial Zambian CopperbeltPatience MususaThe Ruins of Turkana: An Archaeology of Failed Development in Northern KenyaSamuel F. Derbyshire and Lucas LowasaThe Brand New Ruins of Public Health: A Tale of Two Buildings, Kinshasa, DRCGuillaume Lachenal‘Is This Anthropology Really a Modern Subject?’: Kenyan Students’ Experience of Nairobi’s (Changing) University ArchitecturesIda Skjong GrøvikLaboratory Unbuilt: An Architectural Biography of Postcolonial Science in East AfricaPaul Wenzel GeisslerEpilogue          Buildings and People: Interdisciplinarity, Juxtaposition and ExperimentationPaul Wenzel Geissler and Johan LagaeNotes on Contributors

'Tracing concrete connections between architecture and anthropology, African Modernism and Its Afterlives offers glimpses of past futures, half-remembered dreams and enduring structures. Engaging and ever clear-eyed, its chapters provide a trenchant guide to 20th century efforts to alter African social life through building, along with the artefacts they left behind.'Peter Redfield, University of Southern California