For a while now I’ve been wanting to post some of the images by celebrated architect David Adjaye‘s to “… photograph and document key cities in Africa as part of an ongoing project to study new patterns of urbanism.”  It is also part of Adjaye’s “… personal quest … to address the scant knowledge of the built environment of the African continent.” The pictures were displayed at London’s Design Museum till earlier this month as a series of large projections against a backdrop of African beats composed by Adjaye’s brother for the exhibit. David Adjaye visited 46 cities and took 36,000 pictures. Only 3,000 pictures were displayed in the gallery. Some of it gives the impression of holiday snapshots, while others have more to them, like the one above taken in downtown Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, a city once referred to as the “Paris of West Africa.”  Here‘s a link to a mainstream review. Anybody went to see it? Would love to hear your reactions of seeing the photographs in the exhibition. The pics here are only a small sample.

(BTW, Adjaye has been commissioned to design the new Smithsonian National Museum of African History and Culture planned on the Mall in Washington D.C.).

Asmara, Eritrea

Cairo, Egypt

Gaborone, Botswana

Dakar, Senegal

Nouakchott, Mauritania

Further Reading

Energy for whom?

Behind the fanfare of the Africa Climate Summit, the East African Crude Oil Pipeline shows how neocolonial extraction still drives Africa’s energy future.

The sound of revolt

On his third album, Afro-Portuguese artist Scúru Fitchádu fuses ancestral wisdom with urban revolt, turning memory and militancy into a soundtrack for resistance.

O som da revolta

No seu terceiro álbum, o artista afro-português Scúru Fitchádu funde a sabedoria ancestral com a revolta urbana, transformando memória e militância em uma trilha sonora para a resistência.

Biya forever

As Cameroon nears its presidential elections, a disintegrated opposition paves the way for the world’s oldest leader to claim a fresh mandate.

From Cornell to conscience

Hounded out of the United States for his pro-Palestine activism, Momodou Taal insists that the struggle is global, drawing strength from Malcolm X, faith, and solidarity across borders.

After the uprising

Following two years of mass protest, Kenya stands at a crossroads. A new generation of organizers is confronting an old question: how do you turn revolt into lasting change? Sungu Oyoo joins the AIAC podcast to discuss the vision of Kenya’s radical left.

Redrawing liberation

From Gaza to Africa, colonial cartography has turned land into property and people into populations to be managed. True liberation means dismantling this order, not redrawing its lines.

Who deserves the city?

Colonial urbanism cast African neighborhoods as chaotic, unplanned, and undesirable. In postcolonial Dar es Salaam, that legacy still shapes who builds, who belongs, and what the middle class fears the city becoming.