The Diversity Of Early African Architecture/Ruins Thread

[Jazo]

I don't know if anyone has already posted this, but I was looking for some images of Bakongo architecture and found some of houses in colonial Angola (most specifically from 1935-1939 by Elmano Cunha e Costa) from the Portuguese site Arquivo Científico Tropical Digital. There are more on the site and not just from this specific group, just search for "casa" (house), "tipo de habitação" (type of housing) or "cubata" (house in Kimbundu) to find most of them.

Cacongos (Kakongo) of Cabinda
View attachment 73562
View attachment 73563

Mussucos (Basuku)
View attachment 73564

Zombos (Bazombo)
View attachment 73565

Maiombes (Yombe)
View attachment 73567
View attachment 73566

Mussurongos (Solongo)
View attachment 73568
View attachment 73569

Sossos (Basoso?)
View attachment 73570

These are gems

 

[edrizzy29]

"An artistic rendition of Kumasi, showcasing Akan architecture, Adinkra masonry, & lively streets before the city suffered significant loss during the Third Anglo-Asante War in 1873–1874."


Authors: @akanarchive and @pencil_monk

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Modeled after this picture:

 

[Jazo]

@Aethalstan , the other thread got locked (and I can't message you for some reason), so I thought I'd reply to you quickly over here. I was just using the examples of the xenophobic attacks in South Africa to illustrate that having a black identity doesn't preclude having anti-black sentiments. But I didn't mean to say that all, or most Black South Africans have a xenophobia problem, and I should have worded that better. My apologies if I insulted you, I didn't mean any offence.



I would love to visit Tanzania (and almost every other country on the continent), but my wallet doesn't allow it for now. I've just been semi-systematically sharing what I have to share about African architecture, and it was the turn for the Swahili Coast. I still have a few posts to go... After that I'll refocus on another region and time. That's all... But don't get me wrong. I'm definitely a fan of Swahili architecture!



I'm sure it was!



Shared these in another thread a while back,

Akwidaa, 1883, Ahanta people (a coastal Akan tribe):
View attachment 44967


Sekondi, also Ahanta, 1883:
View attachment 44968


Mankessim an important Fante headquarter, palace of the King, Fante people (also coastal Akan):
View attachment 44974
(A few centuries of influence from European traders created some interesting local styles, technically precolonial)

More Fante houses:
View attachment 44975


Anyway, I think he was talking more about that highly ornate, royal "Ashanti architecture". Like this example, which is actually in Abetifi, a town of the Kwahu people (or Okwawu), another Akan tribe:
View attachment 44970



The Ashanti actually learnt that style of architecture from Adansi, yet another Akan tribe just to their south. This beautiful engraving of an Adansi palace at Fomena is often misattributed to the Ashanti. I know I've made the mistake at least once:
View attachment 44969

It spread to some other Akan tribes, to some degree, like those in Ivory Coast illustrated in the previous posts. Here's another angle of Kofi's house at Abengourou. They are Anyi people, (also Akan):
View attachment 44973

But it definitely wasn't some kind of pan-Akan architecture. Coastal Akan peoples didn't build in this style and my own people didn't either. But yes, all Akan architecture was rectangular.

This is the traditional style of my home region, Akuapem (also Akan). The town of Larteh, actually an Akuapem-Guang town, with heavy Akan influence:
View attachment 44971



Coronation of the King of Whydah, 1723:
View attachment 44972

Adanse was tbf formerly a core part of Asante and so was Kwahu who also use the architectural style. But yeah they’re no longer Asante, Kwahu seceded in 1888 and Adanse in 1873

 

[edrizzy29]

More pictures of the Palace of Segou. Including picture and description of the interior of a meeting room.

This picture has been posted here before:



Now, some of the new pics I got:

 

[Gdl55]

I was intrigued by the Tata that @Sundiata1 posted a while back and decided to look into it. I ended up finding another angle of this same fortification on Pinterest, a photo taken by Georges Géo-Fourrier in 1931 from this site. Unfortunately, every other link I click on the site causes an unknown error and I can't explore it further. Maybe some of you will have better luck.


The photo was taken in 1931 and the caption reads: "Le 'tata' du chef: corvée d'eau". You can see above it written "Tchad - Pref. du Moyen-Chari / S. Pref. de Kyabe" and in the upper corner of the photo the name "Sara".

And this is the website where Sundiata1 found the photos of Paul L. Hoefler.

I also found these images shortly after on Pinterest as well. I don't know if they are related, but they have similar characteristics. I'm still looking for the origin of the first one; the second one, according to the poster, is a gate in the city walls of Logone-Birni from ca. 1930 from Archives Nationales d'Outre-Mer.

 

[DanAlquati]

Old buildings of Bahouan Fondom

 

[DanAlquati]

Some 3D concept arts of Southern African stone towns & settlements:

Kaditshwene, Bahurutse people (Tswana, Pedi, Sotho & Lozi) 1470 - 1823


Blaauboschkraal stone settlements, 16th century or older

Dzata, Venda people, 14th century

 

[TheEmpireFN]

"An artistic rendition of Kumasi, showcasing Akan architecture, Adinkra masonry, & lively streets before the city suffered significant loss during the Third Anglo-Asante War in 1873–1874."


Authors: @akanarchive and @pencil_monk

x.com

x.com

x.com

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Modeled after this picture:

It honestly looks like it was modeled off of a drawing that I made about 8 years ago:

 

[cachibatches]

Hey, here is an architecture question for the thread. What is the oldest known example of "Iya" type earthwork walls like those of Benin in Nigeria?

 

[Jazo]

It honestly looks like it was modeled off of a drawing that I made about 8 years ago: View attachment 75463

This would make more sense, I was wondering why the adampan buildings weren’t evenly distributed in height like in the photo

 

[HJsnandeuien90]

Some 3D concept arts of Southern African stone towns & settlements:

Kaditshwene, Bahurutse people (Tswana, Pedi, Sotho & Lozi) 1470 - 1823
View attachment 75411

Blaauboschkraal stone settlements, 16th century or older
View attachment 75412
Dzata, Venda people, 14th century
View attachment 75413

Where did you find these? They don't turn up on either google or yandex.

 

[MadMullah]

Are these depictions of Benin Architecture accurate? From what I have seen, these depictions are not from Benin City, but from outside towns.

 

[Jazo]

Are these depictions of Benin Architecture accurate? From what I have seen, these depictions are not from Benin City, but from outside towns.

Doesn't look particularly accurate. The walls of houses would usually be fluted and sometimes would have depictions or patterns drawn into them. They were made out of red earth that in it's prime would look glossy in the light. Most houses would have thatched roofs, it's only the palace as far as i'm aware that had wooden tiled roofs. Here's a drawing of a view of part of Benin City made by a British officer in 1897. That rectangular setup for the house compound near the bottom right is common in Benin
Here are some images of Benin City, bear in mind this is the place after it was burnt down by the British.
- View of a building said to have been the house of the chief Juju priest, ornamented with clay figures in relief.
The last is a reconstruction of an Edo palace hall.

The next two are more accurate renditions of a part of the Benin Palace and the Chief's quarters

 

[Kanfari]

Jstor article on Yoruba palace gardens

https://login.libproxy.library.unt.edu/login?qurl=https://www.jstor.org%2fstable%2f1586979%3fseq%3d10

 

[MadMullah]

Doesn't look particularly accurate. The walls of houses would usually be fluted and sometimes would have depictions or patterns drawn into them. They were made out of red earth that in it's prime would look glossy in the light. Most houses would have thatched roofs, it's only the palace as far as i'm aware that had wooden tiled roofs. Here's a drawing of a view of part of Benin City made by a British officer in 1897. That rectangular setup for the house compound near the bottom right is common in BeninView attachment 75941
Here are some images of Benin City, bear in mind this is the place after it was burnt down by the British. View attachment 75942View attachment 75944View attachment 75943
- View of a building said to have been the house of the chief Juju priest, ornamented with clay figures in relief.
View attachment 75946View attachment 75950The last is a reconstruction of an Edo palace hall.

The next two are more accurate renditions of a part of the Benin Palace and the Chief's quarters View attachment 75948View attachment 75949

Amazing pictures, Jazo! The Benin Kingdom features some of my favorite architecture in West Africa. Do you know if they had multi-story buildings like those in northern Nigeria? If not, why not?

 

[Jazo]

Amazing pictures, Jazo! The Benin Kingdom features some of my favorite architecture in West Africa. Do you know if they had multi-story buildings like those in northern Nigeria? If not, why not?

Not as far as i'm aware other than perhaps the towers on the Palace but I could be wrong. If they weren't used the reasons would probably be cultural, they likely didn't see the need or have the desire for multiple stories as in other places. Given the Oba's former palaces huge size in terms of area, your building stretching over a larger piece of land in Benin was perhaps the more desirable or status showing aspect of a building. As Ighayere notes here the palace was compared to the size of the city of Haarlem in 17th century Netherlands

I need to correct this. Unfortunately, I mixed up Amsterdam and Haarlem here when referring to the sources. Benin City as a whole was compared to Amsterdam in Dutch sources in terms of extent, in terms of how the buildings stood in good order like those in Amsterdam, and how the walls of houses were polished so well that the shining walls looked as nice as any of the plastered walls of the houses in Dutch cities, but the comparison which the Dutch made about the Benin palace complex specifically was between Haarlem (the third largest city in the Netherlands in the 17th century) and the Benin palace complex. It is incorrect to state that they compared the palace complex directly with Amsterdam in extent; it was Benin City as a whole that they compared with Amsterdam (decades before Olfert Dapper's book was published, a late 16th century source, which is mentioned in that article about Benin's civil war that I previously referenced, actually described the extent of Benin City by describing it as "a city the size of Amsterdam" at the time), while the comparison of the palace was with the city of Haarlem, which was also large in the 17th century, but not as large as Amsterdam:

"By seventeenth century standards, Haarlem was a city of considerable size. In the first decade of the century, it was the third largest in the United Provinces, with around 30,000 residents - much smaller than the population of Amsterdam, but only slightly less than that of Leiden (both of which were also in the province of Holland)." (Source)

"As was the case for many cities in Holland - the western part of the present-day Netherlands - the seventeenth century was a very prosperous time for Haarlem. It was the third largest city in Holland, after Amsterdam and Leiden." (Source)

So the comparison should have been with Haarlem, not Amsterdam. The palace complex was considered by them as being as large as one of the largest cities in their country, but it would be incorrect to state that it was viewed as being as large as their capital.

"View of the exterior wall of the king's (Oba's) residence, or palace or 'compound', in Benin City. A handwritten caption elsewhere describes this as being 'where the carriers were encamped', and indeed the group is just visible sitting together near the base of the wall, with several British officers nearby, as well as a large mounted gun (on wheeled carriage)."

 

[Jazo]

Doesn't look particularly accurate. The walls of houses would usually be fluted and sometimes would have depictions or patterns drawn into them. They were made out of red earth that in it's prime would look glossy in the light. Most houses would have thatched roofs, it's only the palace as far as i'm aware that had wooden tiled roofs. Here's a drawing of a view of part of Benin City made by a British officer in 1897. That rectangular setup for the house compound near the bottom right is common in BeninView attachment 75941
Here are some images of Benin City, bear in mind this is the place after it was burnt down by the British. View attachment 75942View attachment 75944View attachment 75943
- View of a building said to have been the house of the chief Juju priest, ornamented with clay figures in relief.
View attachment 75946View attachment 75950The last is a reconstruction of an Edo palace hall.

The next two are more accurate renditions of a part of the Benin Palace and the Chief's quarters View attachment 75948View attachment 75949

The second image is also apparently a reconstruction of an interior of a Benin home, I got those two images from earlier in the thread

 

[JuanP]

Some 3D concept arts of Southern African stone towns & settlements:

Kaditshwene, Bahurutse people (Tswana, Pedi, Sotho & Lozi) 1470 - 1823
View attachment 75411

Blaauboschkraal stone settlements, 16th century or older
View attachment 75412
Dzata, Venda people, 14th century
View attachment 75413

Out of curiosity, where are those images from? They look incredible, you have already read a little about the stone ruins of South Africa, but I have never seen a reconstruction

 

[Nyumba]

Benin, the only African country where most practice a pagan religion, is now rebuilding various voodoo convents. 15 in total in the traditional style of the Dahomey kingdom.


Sakpata Convent - completed

Hevioso de Soke Convent - U/C

others to come

 

[Kanfari]

Benin, the only African country where most practice a pagan religion, is now rebuilding various voodoo convents. 15 in total in the traditional style of the Dahomey kingdom.


Sakpata Convent - completed

Hevioso de Soke Convent - U/C

others to come

That's honestly really heartening to hear. Thanks for sharing.