Merging Indigenous African and Western Knowledge Systems; I

Abstract

Since colonial times, Euro centricism has eroded development and modernization of not only indigenous African architectural design values but also other Sub-Saharan, socio-cultural heritage knowledge and practices. From onset of colonialism, a large quantity of these heritages underwent disparagement for allegedly possessing lower cultural value. It was born in Europe’s mental faculties to monopolize claims to architectural beauty. Apparently, the problem is that formal architectural education in East Africa follows the Bauhaus and Acole de Beaux-Arts curricula and indigenous African aesthetics, creative impulses and imagination seem little appreciated. Furthermore, there is minimal interest in including them in the curricula. Hence, the thrust was to make a case for revitalization, of indigenous African design-based knowledge systems in contemporary East African architectural education.The topic was worth researching given the need for Africa to reassert its place in contemporary education. The social science approach of historical analysis coupled with the mixed grounded theory-led exploratory, descriptive and explanatory pathway of investigation was preferred for this paper. Spanning results the Paper does not advocate for ‘either-or’ choices between foreign and indigenous perspectives. Rather, in its findings and major conclusion it asserts that it is time for East African architectural knowledge gurus to adopt merging marginalised indigenous African architectural design values with Western knowledge. Thus, it recommends that hybridization of the dominantly Western architectural education with indigenous African design and associated building arts/crafts is a better way forward for a win-win situation for both worlds of wisdom in training contemporary architects in East Africa