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Manful, Kuukuwa Oduguamba, Batsani-Ncube, Innocent and Gallagher, Julia (2022) 'Invented modernisms: getting to grips with modernity in three African state buildings.' Curator: The Museum Journal, 65 (3). pp. 569-589.

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Abstract

This article examines recent attempts to create specifically African forms of modernist political architecture that draw on ‘traditional’ or ‘pre-colonial’ aesthetic forms and ideas. Taking examples of three prestigious structures – the presidential palace in Ghana, the parliament in Malawi and the Northern Cape regional parliament in South Africa – the article shows how vernacular ideas have been incorporated into state-of-the-art political architecture, producing new or explicitly ‘African’ forms of modernism. It explores how such buildings, which draw on ‘invented traditions’, are used alongside conventional, monolithic representations of the state to produce ‘invented modernisms’ that both uphold and question the African state as a project of modernity.

Item Type: Journal Article
SOAS Departments & Centres: Departments and Subunits > Department of Politics & International Studies
ISSN: 21516952
Copyright Statement: © 2022 The Authors. Curator: The Museum Journal published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
DOI (Digital Object Identifier): https://doi.org/10.1111/cura.12505
Date Deposited: 01 Jul 2022 11:50
URI: https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/id/eprint/37658
Funders: European Union

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