Researches

TOWARDS A DEFINITION OF THE AFRICAN CITY

An interdisciplinary analysis of the elements of a city

Case study: Brazzaville, Congo.

Marie-Alphonse Liwata.
Architect and Town Planner
Special Lecturer at Tampere University of Technology

The emergence of towns[1] represents development in its extremity. It broke traditional structures and created modern values: the social space of modernity. Brazzaville, capital of the Congo, belongs to the second generation of African cities created by the Europeans. But classified as a “European” city, it is regarded as a special case of the colonial city. Like any other major city in Black Africa, it is divided in two main sections: the European section and the African section. The roots of this division lie in the colonial history. The French needed local employees. The number of arrivals was large. The section of the town originally built for them was inadequate to receive everybody. The newcomers extended the area and built “shanty towns” that became a significant living area for the diverse ethnic groups: “Les Brazzavilles Noires”,[2] as described by Georges Balandier (1985). 

After moving to the big city, most Bantu people preferred to live amongst their own ethnic group in the African section of the town. Between the rural and urban population exists strong spiritual and material bonds. The space is a ‘semiotic grid’ of interpretation of the social communication; to adapt the township life, as described by Bonello, the new generations have created a new luandu [social net][3]

The objectives of my presentation are to analyse:

  • Urban – rural relationships
  • European – African area relationships
  • How the social practices of the space put in order the significance of the city.
  • How these new forms of interaction help shape the use of space, creating networks corresponding to their functions within the city.

Key words: Urban cultures, Ethnicity, Space/Place, Architecture, Bantu philosophy.

[1] Bonello, Yvs-Henri, La Ville, 2nd Edition, Presses Universitaires de France, 1996.
[2] Balandier, Georges.
Sociologie des Brazzavilles noires, Paris, Armand Colin, 1954.
 Names given by Georges Balandier to Poto-Poto and Bacongo in his book, the two first African districts of Brazzaville, originally created as African villages for local employees.
[3] Théophile Obenga (1985) defines the Bantu family as a luandu. It implies a wide and solid net, which keeps family members firmly united, and at the same time symbolises the solidarity of its members. Obenga, Théophile, Les Bantu, Langues-Peuples-Civilisations, Paris, Présence Africaine, 1985.