Prizewinning architecture: This primary school in a village in Burkina Faso was designed by Diébédo Francis Kéré and built with locally sourced materials and the assistance of the villagers.
This month marks 45 years since the death of black consciousness luminary Steve Biko, who not only gave us a paradigmatic meaning of being black in South Africa, but also a programmatic approach to how we can unshackle ourselves from the chains that bind us.
Throughout his oeuvre, Biko insisted that we actually do have the capacity to change our reality. The ANC government has failed us, despite having been in power for almost 30 years. Since we no longer have Biko to give us his word, we can only speculate that he would say that “not all is lost; we can salvage ourselves”.
This speculation is grounded in the fact that Biko stood firm in the face of a brutal regime and assured us that the winds of change are near, that we are beautiful and that the power is in our minds. Biko not only spoke about this but also did it before we even thought about it.
He boldly proclaimed that the “call for black consciousness is the most positive call to come from any group in the black world”. The genius of this call lies in the fact that it does not only reject the deliberate sustenance of the hierarchies of apartheid by those who benefit from them. His call in essence acknowledges that black people need to stop being tenants or spectators in a land that belongs to them and that they must use “the concept of group power to build a strong foundation”.
The many black organisations that he was a part of carried out numerous community projects that succeeded during a very dark period. In the spirit of Biko’s memory, I think it is necessary to appreciate that there is no messiah coming to save us — we must make the changes ourselves.
I have been thinking seriously about spatiality as something that gives some meaning to one’s being, and as a tool that can be used to read the nature of society. I am interested in public space and architecture in particular. I am interested in how these, at their most effective, can be used to bring about a material change in the lives of poor black people.
It is important that we use the skills we have not just for our individual benefit, but also to change the conditions we come from for the better; that is the African way. The concept of ubuntu must not just be a theoretical embellishment that makes us appear authentically African, it must rather be our very mode of being.
As a spatial practitioner, I believe that through positive spatial making, we can create the perfect conditions for people to realise that they can be active agents in changing and shaping their own lives, and remind them that they do not always have to be at the mercy of a government that has demonstrated time and again its disregard for them.
There are a number of architects who have already begun on the path to push their communities forward. Diébédo Francis Kéré is a leading architect from Burkina Faso who was recently announced as the first African winner of the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize. Kéré has dedicated his career to giving back to where he comes from. He uses his profession to serve both himself and to change the conditions of his country. Despite the many prestigious awards he has received throughout the years, he still has a sense of duty toward his nation.
His most notable work was the building of a school in his hometown. What is beautiful about his method is that he collaborates with the villagers and he makes use of locally sourced materials. Kéré does not see himself as some sort of saviour, as is often the case with professionals and NGOs. He believes people are capable of helping themselves.
In an age where everything is outsourced, architects routinely use materials from around the world and methods that are foreign to Africa. This is not sustainable, because building costs become higher and the methods might not be the best in an African context.
It is necessary that we inculcate an ethic of self-sustenance because history has shown us that no one is coming to help us. Those who pretend to do so have their own backhanded agendas. The approach that architects use must be intimately tied to local resources.
Mass Design Group is doing it in Rwanda: local materials such as volcanic rocks are being used for building. As Michael Murphy, a co-founder of the group suggests, we must try to leverage as much local knowledge and practice as possible to develop an architecture that is uniquely fitted to our needs and conditions.
Although I am speaking as an architect, the point is that as professionals we need to see our skills and trades as important resources that we can use to make radical changes in our country. We have a duty and responsibility; it cannot be that we are comfortable while the majority of black people are still “outside” the economy, existing on the fringes of society, occupying the ghettos and prisons and always confronted by the imminent threat of death.
We can change this by embodying the spirit of Biko and all the other black people who have dared to do something about the dire conditions of their fellow Africans.
Inam Kula works as an architect and activist, and seeks to address the relationship between space and power, confronting the uses of architecture that create and reinforce systems of marginalisation and exclusion.