AFRICA'S BUILDINGS, architecture and the displacement of cultural heritage

252pp., b/w & colour illus., d.w., hardback, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2025

ISBN: 9780691251431

A richly illustrated history of the collection of African architectural fragments by colonial officials, collectors, and anthropologists, and their distribution to museums in Europe and the United States, where they were mostly cataloged as ornamental art objects, erasing their intended functions. The book addresses the ethical questions surrounding the display of these objects and makes a bold proposal for the repatriation of these artifacts.

“In this wide-ranging study of the looting and collecting of Africa’s architecture by European powers, Itohan Osayimwese brilliantly demonstrates the effects of such violent scattering of cultures, places, lives, and knowledge systems on our understanding of African architecture. A must-read for anyone interested in architecture or the problem of cultural restitution.” Swati Chattopadhyay, author of Small Spaces: Recasting the Architecture of Empire

“Enlightening and relatable across cultural boundaries, Itohan Osayimwese presents an erudite rendering of African architectural history by demolishing preconceived Western definitions about the subject. The book’s carefully woven narratives demonstrate that attempts to cast Africa’s architectural production as purely traditional were and remain anthropological projects of race and class distinctions in modernity.” Nnamdi Elleh, author of Architecture and Politics in Nigeria

Itohan Osayimwese is Professor of the History of Art and Architecture and Urban Studies at Brown University, where she is an affiliate faculty in Africana studies and at the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. She is the author of Colonialism and Modern Architecture in Germany and the editor of German Colonialism in Africa and Its Legacies.