Constructing Coloniality: Building Empire in West Africa

Architectural History

This miniseries of the Architectural History podcast has been produced to mark the SAHGB Conference 2023: 'Constructing Coloniality: British Imperialism and the Built Environment'. The conference takes as its theme the coloniality of architecture and heritage in relation to the British Empire, from the early years of expansionism and the escalation of the slave trade in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, through the physical and political force wielded in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and the development of racial capitalism, to the subsequent and ongoing struggles for independence, freedom and justice.

In this episode we spoke to Ola Uduku about her work on the relationship between empire and the built environment in West Africa. We discussed how different forms of colonial and imperial government shape architectural production and the complex cultural manifestations of imperial architecture before, during and after formal colonisation.

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This podcast is produced by Front Ear Podcasts