The built environment reflects and shapes social and political life as well as day-to-day experiences. Architecture and infrastructures embody sensibilities, imagination, and a shared idea of the future. Buildings display certain aesthetics in attempting to manifest a sense of belonging and pride. From Zambia to the Ivory Coast, the construction of landmarks has been used to symbolize political transitions, while existing colonial structures bear traces of a fraught past. The circulation of construction materials reflects global interdependences. Created in contrast to and dialogue with the natural environment, buildings are agents of social order and organize labor relationships. Hence, they can be described as instruments of control. This seminar will allow us to think about the history of the
built environment in Africa through the ideas outlined above. The focus will be on infrastructures and buildings erected or imagined in the twenty and twenty-first centuries - from colonial Alger to the "Transgabonais" railway, to South African townships and to Addis Ababa's "megaprojects".

HISTART Distribution Requirements: Sub-Saharan Africa; Modern and Contemporary