Representation and Materialization of Architecture and Space in Zimbabwe

Between National Icons and Dispositifs

verfasst von: Langtone Maunganidze

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Über dieses Buch

This volume is an empirical study examining the extent to which historic and iconic architecture and spaces in Zimbabwe - particularly in urban areas - have been mobilized to construct and reconstruct identities. The author explores the question of traditional and political architecture through analysis of a variety of structures, including monuments, museums, and indigenous and state buildings. Special attention is paid to the soapstone-carved Zimbabwe Bird, which for years has served as the national emblem. Overall, this book argues that while the production and use of architectural products and spaces have been regarded symbols of collective identity, they have also served as expressions of power and control.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Chapter 1. Setting the Tone

Abstract

This opening chapter highlights the paucity of the research problem that informed the thesis of the book. It introduces the central argument weaving through the text. In particular, it establishes the importance of interrogating the various modes of representation and patterns of materialization of architecture and spaces to the discipline of sociology of architecture and space. It also provides a synopsis of the theoretical and methodological issues, and the motivation for the research and subsequently the production of the book. The chapter concludes with an overview of the book layout.

Langtone Maunganidze

Chapter 2. Framing Iconic Architecture: Context and Dimensions

Abstract

For many years, Zimbabwean architecture was subjected to variants of appropriation and materialization with multifarious effects on individual and collective identities. In particular, its forced engagement with colonial powers followed by a repressive post-colonial state left legacies of multi-layered elitist and totalitarian inscriptions. The chapter supports other scholars who have regarded coping with African iconic architecture as something of a bind: a combination of significance, contestability and asymmetry. It concludes that the mediating influence of political power in the construction of these “grand” structures has rendered many of the architectural products to vacillate between national icons and memory dispositives.

Langtone Maunganidze

Chapter 3. Materiality, Architectural Re-figuration and Identity

Abstract

Although the state appeared to possess autonomous power in the representation and materialization of architectural products, the practice and processes of (re)naming them were not necessarily one-way traffic. Thus, politically inspired toponymical changes can often unfold in a rather incoherent, inconclusive, spatially diverse and protracted manner. There was an unstated assumption that renaming the urban landscape for political ends was effective, as the ordinary citizens would naturally accept the new names and quickly absorb them into their everyday life. Although examples of “toponymical cleansing” shown in this chapter indicate the influence of political power on new forms of re-figuration, there is also evidence of some resistance. There is also the danger of portraying the implementation of street name changes as reflecting the aspirations of homogenous political elites.

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Chapter 4. Museums, Monuments and Statues: A Critical Review

Abstract

World over, the characters of museums and monuments have historically been influenced by the purposes, assumptions, and identities of those who planned them. From an African perspective, processes of building museums and monuments are a sincere quest for the restoration of an authentic African identity previously destroyed by imperialism and necessarily construed as a decolonization project. However, reality in many countries including Zimbabwe shows that many of these are a significant expression of the ruling class and powerful elites’ desire both to engage in a politics of recognition and to position themselves relative to pasts and futures. Designating an architectural product as a historicist piece is rarely a straightforward engagement; it is multi-authored and often obscure. The representation and materialization of museums and monuments are paradoxical: serving as iconographies for historic preservation and collective heritagization, and at the same time instruments of power.

Langtone Maunganidze

Chapter 5. Deconstructing Iconic and Historicist State Buildings

Abstract

Representation of state architecture is directly controlled by the political power symbolizing the different state personalities and how they communicate it. Globally, colonial architecture was characterized by the commemoration of heroes of First and Second World Wars. In the greater part of Africa, state buildings and spaces were named in honour of knighted personalities coming out of those battles. Actually, the Europeans went as far as changing the names of ancient kingdoms and states. In the case of Zimbabwe, most of the star or historic buildings owned or controlled by the colonial government were named after leaders of the British-led Pioneer Column, under the famous Cecil John Rhodes in the late nineteenth century. At independence, in 1980, the new Zimbabwe government pursued a decolonization path of place (re)naming that memorialized and commemorated immortalized leaders of the struggle against colonialism including pan-African leaders who had provided both political and material support to the success of the struggle.

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Chapter 6. Inside Indigeneity and Iconicity: The African Traditional Hut

Abstract

The chapter considers the concept and practice of “iconic indigeneity” as represented by the materiality of the African traditional rural hut, commonly referred to as “the kitchen hut”. This architectural piece that is widely revered across Africa in general and Zimbabwe in particular as a symbol of indigeneity and legacy of traditional planning heritage epitomizes a strong association between space, nature and society. Although the representation of the African traditional hut in both scholarship and practice is not new it remains a fertile ground for systematic academic engagement. Historical and archaeological research has traditionally over-emphasized stone-built structures and particularly the dominance of the ancient and medieval products at the expense of the African vernacular or traditional mud/dagga hut.

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Chapter 7. Urban Informality: Sponsored or Agentive Materialization?

Abstract

Globally urban spaces have historically been centres of struggles and transformation. With particular reference to selected urban informal settlements in the capital, Harare, the chapter draws inspiration from Henry Lefebvre’s (The production of space. Trans. D. Nicholson-Smith. Blackwell, Oxford, 1991) “autogestion” thesis to examine the extent to which urban spaces have been appropriated to cope with the emerging urban poly-crises particularly shortage of land for residential purposes. The study that informs this chapter considered the extent to which both the genesis and persistence of informal settlements exemplified either a sponsored or an agentive materialization of urban spaces. It concludes that what seemed to be “anarchistic” tendencies of urban informality and irregularity were actually a product of systematic appropriation and materialization by different actors for both economic and political expedience.

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Chapter 8. Gender, Architecture and Space

Abstract

Drawing from the experiences of various architectural products explored in the previous chapters, the chapter examines the connections between gender, architecture and space. Gendered architectural production and materialization manifest through the various forms of under-representation of women in the process of historic construction and preservation. The constancy of architectural appropriation under successive regimes is critical in the context of pushing the boundaries of analysis beyond the decolonizing narrative as the post-colonial state has equally been widely accused of deepening democratic deficit and perpetuating marginalization of minority groups and individuals such as women.

Langtone Maunganidze

Chapter 9. Reflection and Conclusion

Abstract

The study that informed the development of this book sought to examine the representation and materialization of iconic architecture in Zimbabwe tapping into the historicity of (heritage) sites and architectural products. For centuries, architecture and space in Africa in general and Zimbabwean, in particular, were subjected to variants of appropriation and materialization with multifarious effects on individual and collective identities. In particular, its forced engagement with colonial powers followed by relatively repressive post-colonial regimes left legacies of multi-layered elitist and totalitarian inscriptions. Guided by a combination of normative structuralism and critical post-structuralism, the collection of chapters provides a narrative and critical review of the ways in which Zimbabwean iconic architecture including historicist buildings, monuments and cityscapes have come about and been mobilized as cultural, economic, religious and political artefacts and artifices producing identities and other complex meanings. There seems to be a consistent pattern between how both successive colonial and post-colonial regimes in Zimbabwe have mobilized and capitalized the affinity between politics, culture and architecture. The book’s central argument is that celebrated symbols of memorialization and heritagization through spatial re-figuration are a form of collective historic preservation for national identity formation, and to some extent pieces of hegemonic statecraft. The mediating effect of power in the modes of architectural representation and patterns of materialization particularly in the construction of these “grand” structures renders many of them to resemble more memory dispositifs than national iconographies.

Langtone Maunganidze

Backmatter

Titel: Representation and Materialization of Architecture and Space in Zimbabwe
verfasst von: Langtone Maunganidze
Verlag: Springer Nature Switzerland
Electronic ISBN: 978-3-031-47761-4
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-47760-7
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-47761-4