Post by Culture, The Arts, Entertainment (@culturepower)

Enjoy the Curator's Tour of the MoMA exhibition of Western Africa's Modernist Architecture. Let's join Martino Stierli, co-curator of "Architects of Liberation: Modernism in Western Africa,” for a rare on-location look at modernist buildings across six West African countries: Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Togo, Ghana, Senegal, and Nigeria.

In the decades after independence, countries across West Africa turned to modernist design as a symbol of progress, self-determination, and Pan-African ambition. This video tours some of the era's most striking buildings, including:

Bessengué Train Station (Douala, Cameroon) — a 1978 landmark by Émilien Douala Bell and Jacques Nsangue Akwaa, famous for its undulating roof and multicolored aluminum facade

La Pyramide (Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire) — Rinaldo Olivieri and Riccardo Morandi's futuristic 1970s high-rise

Hôtel de la Paix (Lomé, Togo) — Daniel Chenut's colorful, expressive building in exposed concrete

Scott House (Accra, Ghana) — Kenneth Scott's climate-adaptive modernist family home

CICES (Centre International du Commerce Extérieur du Sénégal) (Dakar, Senegal) — a triangular-motif complex designed for global visibility

Institut National Polytechnique Félix Houphouët-Boigny (Yamoussoukro, Côte d'Ivoire) — Henry Pottier's sprawling university campus

Obafemi Awolowo University / University of Ife (Nigeria) — Bauhaus-trained architect Arieh Sharon's climate-conscious campus blending modernism with Yoruba design traditions

These structures remain vital records of a defining moment in African history — some still in use, others abandoned and facing an uncertain future.

This videos and more works from this ambitious period are featured in the exhibition "Architects of Liberation: Modernism in Western Africa” at MoMA.

#MoMa #Art #Museum #AfricanPride #NaijaPride

https://youtu.be/7eVGGiLkUlw?si=PeF54vnBgkC0b9nW

0 likes · 0 comments · 0 shares