• 1 For this paper, East Africa is the geopolitical region made up of the four countries formerly of B (...)
• 2 Then the Royal Technical College Nairobi.
• 3 Alan Powers, “The Fiction of Architectural Education,” in Daisy Froud and Harriet Harris (eds), Ra (...)
• 4 A useful survey of architecture and architectural production in East Africa is provided by: Philip (...)

1This paper delves into the development of architectural education in East Africa—current-day Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda1—and its relationship to political and funding regimes of the second half of the twentieth century. Underlying socio-cultural, economic, and political factors had a significant effect on the establishment of architectural training programs and the emergence of architecture as a profession in the region. Some 75 years after the first architecture program opened at the University of Nairobi2, and 60 years after these countries attained statehood, how has the ensuing context influenced the direction and perception of the architectural profession? Political independence marked a watershed moment for the three nations, serving as a key point of reference for discussions related to contemporary culture. However, because architecture as a profession is deeply rooted in historical antecedents that define how architectural education is carried out, a continuum of ideas and principles transcended the independence milestone. Indeed, as Alan Powers noted, the underlying structure of architecture education remains fundamentally unchanged.3 In the context of East Africa, this suggests little distinction between pre- and post-independence activities. It is this dichotomous situation that becomes the starting point for our exploration of this legacy in architectural education and, by extension, architecture.4

• 5 Lesley Lokko, “The paradigm of development-aid-charity has come to dominate African architecture t (...)
• 6 Nicholas Coetzer, “Towards a Dialogical Design Studio: Mediating Absurdities in Under-graduate Arc (...)

2The formalization of architectural education in East Africa, which emerged as part of the colonial project, left more than just style in its wake. It fundamentally altered how people across the region engage with their built environments.5 Nicholas Coetzer has suggested that in part, architectural design education in sub-Saharan Africa is absurd because it instils in students references and values that do not reflect the realities of their lived experiences. In essence, the prevailing approach unwittingly perpetuates what Mark Crinson has described as “colonial architectural culture.”6

• 7 Claire Lubell and Rafico Ruiz (eds.), Fugitive Archives: A Sourcebook fo Centring Africa in Histor (...)
• 8 Ibid.
• 9 See also Mark R.O. Olweny, Investigating the Processes of Socialisation in Architectural Education (...)

5The paper is developed as a broad historical investigation, acknowledging the lack of readily accessible documentation across the region. Consequently, creative ways of collecting/gathering the necessary material for investigation were required. Similar approaches are put forth in Fugitive Archives: A Sourcebook for Centring Africa in Histories of Architecture,7 in which editors Claire Lubell and Rafico Ruiz note that in the construction of evidence from often fragmented knowledge, it is necessary to “move non-linearly across times, distances, and disciplines.”8 This is the reality of research in much of sub-Saharan Africa.9

• 10 Ali Mazrui, The Africans: A Triple Heritage, Waltham, MA: Little Brown, 1986.
• 11 The triple heritage in this case came from three distinct entities: Religious Missionaries, Trader (...)

6It is important to acknowledge that the many societies spread across East Africa had a long history of providing education. However, it was not till the early 1900s that education was formalized as part of the colonial project. Training emerged as a triple heritage—to borrow a phrase from eminent scholar Ali Mazrui10—whereby missionaries, traders, and the military prioritized instruction to ensure the acquisition of “new useful knowledge.”11

• 12 As recorded by Ann Beck, “Colonial Policy and Education in British East Africa,” The Journal of Br (...)

8The colonial administration made only limited efforts to promote education, leaving it in the hands of the three organizations named above. The colonial administration also had reservations about allowing broad access to post-secondary education. As noted by Joseph Houldsworth Oldham, Secretary of the International Missionary Council during the 1920s, the British feared it would “[…] lead to a materialistic outlook which would bring only a distorted aspect of [W]estern civilisation to the new African generation.”12 Consequently, the small colonial education system was directed toward technical and administrative priorities, churning out desk clerks to assist in colonial offices and a small number of workers to support expatriate personnel in the critical professions—medicine, agriculture, engineering, and surveying. An education in the humanities, however, was deemed too dangerous for the African population, as noted by Nizar Motani:

• 14 The Buganda Kingdom had signed a treaty in 1893 and again in 1894 which secured Uganda as a Britis (...)
• 15 Nizar A. Motani, “Makere College 1922-1940,” op. cit. (note 13), p. 365.

9Regardless of efforts by colonial governments to keep a lid on the ideological and political ambitions of the indigenous population by limiting educational offerings to technical and vocational courses, demand was high. Frustrated by the lack of alternatives to technical and vocational opportunities for the elite within the Buganda Kingdom, situated in what is today Uganda,14 for instance, kingdom officials suggested they would like to sponsor students to attend tertiary education overseas. This ambition was quashed by the colonial administration, which denied travel documents to prospective students. They argued that this was “a safeguard for the Africans themselves, against racial insults, ill-treatment or language difficulties while travelling to foreign countries and partly to insulate them from undesirable external influences.”15 Of particular concern for the colonial government was the prospect of “contamination” of Africans by what are today the Historically Black Colleges and Universities such as Fisk University, Howard University, and Tuskegee University, as well as the Universal Negro Improvement Association in North America.

• 16 Paulin J. Hountondji, “Manufacturing Unemployment: The Crisis of Education in Africa,” in Philip H (...)
• 17 Eric Ashby and Mary Anderson, Universities: British, Indian, African: A Study in the Ecology of Hi (...)

10Faced with growing agitation from the local elite seeking access to non-vocational education, the colonial administration reluctantly agreed to broaden the scope of educational programs at Makerere College. Located in Kampala, Uganda, Makerere College was established in 1922 as the first post-secondary institution in East Africa, offering vocational education to indigenous Africans from across East Africa. The broadening of courses began during the administration of Uganda Protectorate Governor Philip Mitchell (1935-1940), who saw the need to redress what was a costly policy of prioritizing expatriates over locals for some posts. He intended to ensure the availability of local personnel who were willing and able to serve in the rapidly expanding civil service in the colonial government.16 This was the beginning of the gradual transition of Makerere College to a university college, which accelerated following a resolution of the East African Inter-Territorial Conference on Higher Education held on the campus, May 21-24, 1938. However, it was not until 1949 that the transition was completed as part of the post-war colonial reconstruction and development efforts.17

• 18 O. W. Furley and Thomas Watson, A History of Education in East Africa, New York, NY: NOK Publisher (...)
• 19 Chanan Singh, A Short History of the Gandhi Memorial Academy Society, Nairobi: Gandhi Memorial Aca (...)

11The decision to prioritize Makerere University College as the first university college in East Africa may have been linked to the fact that Uganda had been the key prize in the Scramble for Africa, a consequence of its position at the source of the River Nile. However, Kenya, with its “favorable” climate, became the preferred British settler colony in East Africa. It turned into a far more prosperous colonial territory than Uganda, eventually attracting a much larger European and Asian population. Makerere University College, in the racially divided context of colonial East Africa, was quickly perceived to be an “institution for Africans.” This led to demands for a separate institution for East Africans of Indian origin, spearheaded by the Kenya-based Gandhi Memorial Academy Society (GMAS). Their efforts culminated in the opening of the Royal Technical College, East Africa in 1956, partially financed by the GMAS in memory of Mahatma Gandhi.18 The Royal Technical College had been envisioned as an East African University College providing education in art, science and technical subjects not offered at Makerere. It was also to be open to all races and all religious groups.19 Having a Royal charter was a testament to the college’s perceived importance in colonial East Africa.

• 20 John F. Lockwood, Report of the Working Party on Higher Education in East Africa, July-August 1958 (...)
• 21 J. M. Hyslop, “The University of East Africa,” Minerva, vol. 3, no. 3, 1964. URL: http://www.jstor (...)

12In 1958, a Working Party on Higher Education in East Africa20 agreed to investigate the possibility of establishing a university in East Africa, with a recommendation that this be an interterritorial institution, in order to more efficiently apply resources. This eventually led to the establishment of the ambitious interterritorial University of East Africa, which was established in 1963. It brought together Makerere University College, the Royal Technical College (which later changed its name to the University College Nairobi), and the newly established University College of Dar-es-Salaam, which had been established in the same year with the Faculty of Law affiliated to Makerere University College.21 Although this interterritorial institution was not shy about its ambitions, its key challenge was in the realm of politics and ideology.

• 22 Tanganyika gained independence on December 10, 1961, while the Sultanate of Zanzibar gained its in (...)
• 23 Ujamaa was a unique social and economic policy introduced in Tanzania by Julius Nyerere during the (...)
• 24 Michael Mwenda Kithinji, “An Imperial Enterprise,” op. cit. (note 21), p. 210.
• 25 O. W. Furley and Thomas Watson, A History of Education in East Africa, op. cit. (note 18), p. 348.

13Following independence,22 the three countries took different paths. Uganda and Tanzania transitioned toward socialism with closer links to the Soviet bloc and Non-Aligned Movement. Kenya, however, allied itself with the West. In Uganda, this shift emerged after the 1966 constitutional crisis which saw the abolition of hereditary kingdoms, the creation of an executive presidency, and the adoption of the Common Man’s Charter in the same year. In Tanzania, the 1967 Arusha Declaration ushered in a shift toward self-reliance under the principles of Ujamaa.23 University education was a key instrument in this ideological shift, as noted by Michael Mwenda Kithinji “[…] the three East African governments had hijacked the university colleges located in their territories, turning them into instruments to advance their political and ideological goals.”24 It is suggested by O.W. Furley and Thomas Watson that these divergent ideologies doomed the University of East Africa. The leaders of all three countries demanded that the universities be of “greater relevance […] to the national needs.”25 Nationalistic tendencies were intermingled with attempts at Africanization, intended to broaden access to higher education by diversifying programs.

• 26 The Faculty of Technology at Makerere University welcomed its first engineering students in 1970 f (...)
• 27 The Faculty of Engineering at the University of Dar-es-Salaam enrolled its first class in 1973 for (...)

14The ideological differences between the three nations eventually led to the collapse of the University of East Africa, which closed its doors in 1970. The constituent colleges emerged as three new universities: Makerere University in Uganda, the University of Nairobi in Kenya, and the University of Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania. This split led to another problem, namely restrictions on students travelling across borders for their education, with students from Uganda and Tanzania barred from the University of Nairobi, the sole architecture program in the region at the time. The governments of Uganda and Tanzania were compelled to either develop their own programs or send students overseas for their studies. Training in engineering was prioritized at Makerere University26 and the University of Dar-es-Salaam,27 because both nations regarded engineering as vital to development.

• 28 Antoni Folkers, Modern Architecture in Africa. Amsterdam: Sun Architecture, 2010, p. 177.
• 29 Eric Burton, “Engineering Socialism: The Faculty of Engineering at the University of Dar-es-Salaam (...)

15At the University of Dar-es-Salaam, the type of education offered was determined by the self-help principles of Ujamaa. Describing the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Dar-es-Salaam, Antoni Folkers says, the “engineers would not become super specialists, but be trained to cope with a wide variety of practical problems …[Because] it was assumed that the students would not need extensive knowledge of modern technology and would later return to Tanzanian grassroots practice, the emphasis on practical education was considered essential.”28 The conflict between this position and the desires and aspirations of a younger generation in East Africa led to protests by students unhappy with what they believed was a sub-standard education that would bar them from the higher-echelon positions being vacated by expatriates.29

• 30 Overseas Development Institute, British Aid – 5 Colonial Development, London: The Overseas Develop (...)
• 31 Mark Crinson, Modern Architecture and the End of Empire, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003 (British Art and (...)

16Following World War Two, the colonial administration in East Africa paid added attention to the development of urban areas across the region. In part, this was to appease returned servicemen who had been agitating for independence after their return from active service in North Africa, Asia and Europe. Architecture was a key part of this post war development, emerging as a visible display of the rapid changes across the region. Further, reforms instituted by the British Colonial Development and Welfare Act (1940) saw a shift from an insistence on self-financing and a reliance on resources that could be mustered locally in the colonies. Under the new Act, it was accepted that external assistance was at times necessary. Significantly, “it committed the [British] Government to making assistance available annually on a much larger scale than before, for a very wide range of purposes, including recurrent as well as capital expenditures. And it made this commitment for a period of ten years ahead, in order to encourage long-term planning.”30 As Mark Crinson notes, “architecture and other elements of infrastructural development were promises of ordered modernization struggling to keep up with a pace of political change no longer under the control of colonial administrators.”31

• 32 The Makerere Main Building was tragically destroyed in a fire on September 20, 2020.
• 33 Christopher Cripps, “Architecture, race, identity and multicularism: a radical ‘White’ perspective (...)
• 34 The term Tropical Modernism gradually replaced the name Colonial Modernism from the 1950s onwards, (...)

17The rapid developments and the shift in financing are overtly evident in two projects in Kampala, one completed before, and the other after World War Two, each exhibiting different aesthetic principles. They also showcase how project financing influenced design outcomes. The projects, the Makerere Main Building (1941)32 designed by Cecil T. Mitchell of the Uganda Public Works Department (fig. 1), and Amber House (1953), the headquarters of the Uganda Electricity Board, designed by Graff Architects of South Africa (fig. 2), could not be any more different. The Makerere Main Building, financed entirely by funds generated by the Uganda Protectorate, was designed in a classical style befitting its status as a fledgling university college. Further, the design emphasized the significance attached to higher education by the British colonial government; the building stood out in its surroundings as an ivory tower with strong ties to the past. In contrast, Amber House presented a Tropical Modernist aesthetic that showcased the virtues and values of post-war modernity. Being synonymous with technology “that mirrored or even represented the Western world itself,”33 the idiom of Tropical Modernism34 epitomized developmental progress and aspirations for the colonies, exhibited through the use of new materials like reinforced concrete, aluminum, steel, glass, and asbestos.

• 35 Ian Bampton, “Architecture in Africa: The Profession and Education,” Building, no. 14, 1969, p. 80
• 36 Rhodri Windsor-Liscombe, “Modernism, multiracial community and Mau Mau: Maragua 1953,” presented a (...)

19What did emerge out of the construction boom that followed the Second World War in East Africa was the realization that there was a shortage of architects across the region. To stay in step with these developments and to meet the growing demand for professional services required an unsustainable influx of foreign architects. This did not go unnoticed and was addressed in professional forums including the seminar “The Architectural Task in Africa—The Profession and Education” organized by the Technical College Nairobi in March 1969. The intrusion of foreign practices not only from British Consultants Bureau, but from across Europe into the new African nations was presented as a “problem.”35 The shortage of architects to contribute to the post-war building boom was aggravated by the reality of existing planning legislation. The 1934 East African Architects and Quantity Surveyors Registration Act made it mandatory to use registered architects for projects of “significance,” rendering redundant ‘traditional’ building designers for these commissions.36 This state of affairs coincided with the formative years of architectural education, leading education to be geared towards the need for architects to work in a particular approach and largely in urban settings.

• 37 For such projects in other African countries, see among others: Manuel Herz, African Modernism. Ar (...)

20Like many countries across sub-Saharan Africa which gained their independence during the 1960s onwards, the new nations were keen to build prestigious buildings to showcase their triumph over the colonial powers. This “edifice race” saw the construction of several flagship and vanity projects across the East African region, just as it did in other African countries, such as Ghana, Senegal, and Ivory Coast.37 At the same time, projects emerged celebrating the political parties and the political elite. The association between politics and architecture can be seen in the way leaders were likened to architects. For example, an image on the cover page of the Evening News published in Accra on Monday, March 7, 1960 was captioned “The great architect of Ghana Comrade Kwame Nkrumah seen admiring the new National Headquarters of the Convention People’s Party.” This association is explained by Potter and Potter, who suggested that:

• 39 Manuel Herz, “African Modernism: Nation Building,” The Architectural Review, May 2017. For a thoro (...)

21With architecture foregrounded as an integral part of post-colonial development, there was a surge in grand projects. Two such projects are the Uganda International Conference Centre in Kampala, Uganda, completed in 1971 (fig. 5), and the Kenyatta International Conference Centre in Nairobi, Kenya completed in 1973. The Kenyatta International Conference Centre emerged out of a technical assistance agreement with Norway. Scandinavian countries were keen to demonstrate the value of social democracy in the post-colonial territories, seconding technical staff to Kenya. Architect Karl Henrik Nøstvik arrived in Kenya in 1965 as part of a Norwegian technical aid package and designed the Kenyatta International Conference Centre under the supervision of David Mutiso, Chief Architect in Kenya’s Ministry of Works.39

• 40 Naoko Shimazu, “Places in Diplomacy,” Political Geography, vol. 31, no. 6, 2012. DOI: 10.1016/j.po (...)
• 41 Government of Uganda, Uganda International Conference Centre, Entebbe: Government Printer, 1971.

22The Uganda International Conference Centre had been commissioned for the Organization of African Unity (OAU) summit originally scheduled for July 1971 in Kampala. However, a coup d'état overthrew Milton Obote in January of the same year bringing Idi Amin to power in Uganda. This flagship project was geared to showcase Uganda—a “Palace of Diplomacy”40 hosting international-level conferences to fulfill aspirations of Uganda being equal on the world stage. The ambitious project was completed in six months, designed, and constructed by the Yugoslav firm Energoprojekt.41 Ironically, however, the 1971 OAU Summit for which it was initially built was hastily relocated to Addis Ababa after the 1971 coup d'état. The Conference Centre eventually hosted the OAU Summit in July 1975.

• 42 Apollo Milton Obote, The Common Man’s Charter, Entebbe: Government Printer, 1970.
• 43 Minutes of the second meeting of the Construction Committee for the OAU Conference Centre, held on (...)
• 44 United States Department of State, National Intelligence Estimate: Troubles in East Africa, Washin (...)

23The Uganda International Conference Centre was intended as a visible display of Uganda’s “Move to the Left,” which was presented by President Apollo Milton Obote in the “Common Man’s Charter”42 and embedded into a law signed in 1969. It also stood as an evocation of the opportunities opening up through new post-colonial alliances made possible within the context of the Non-Aligned Movement. Created following the Second World War as an alliance of like-minded nations seeking to forge a future independent of the dominant Western and Soviet Blocs by the leaders of Yugoslavia (Josip Broz Tito), India (Jawaharlal Nehru) and Egypt (Gamal Abdel Nasser) the Non-Aligned Movement provided a new conduit to explore a future outside the East-West duality, and one that was exploited by post-colonial leaders. A major hurdle in getting the flagship project of the Uganda International Conference Centre off the ground was a lack of finances. The anticipated cost of 120 million Uganda Shillings (equivalent to US$16.8 million at the time) would have put considerable strain on the Ugandan economy.43 The United States Department of State commented that “Obote’s lavish spending on such projects as a huge assembly hall for the Organization of African Unity had already depleted Uganda’s foreign exchange reserves when Amin took over.”44 Uganda did foot the bill for the design and construction of the Uganda International Conference Centre after foreign donors and local commercial banks declined to fund the project. This marked a major shift in the financing of major projects, a move brought on by a commitment to host the OAU Summit.

• 45 On Lippsmeier, see Antoni Folkers, “Georg Lippsmeier and His Tropenbau: Salesmanship and Pragmatic (...)
• 46 Antoni Folkers, Modern Architecture in Africa, Amsterdam: Sun Architecture, 2010, p. 183.

24Despite the promises offered by the new development assistance regimes, it was soon evident that conditions under the new alliances were tied to political motives as much as the ones they replaced. The inability of Yugoslavia to finance the Uganda International Conference Centre demonstrated the limitations of this partnership but did highlight the opportunity brought on by the shorter project timelines which showcased the value of this new partnership. Energoprojekt went on to complete several other large projects in Uganda, including the new passenger terminal at Entebbe International Airport, as well as the construction of the new headquarters of the Uganda Commercial Bank, designed by Peatfield and Bodgener. The shift in geopolitical cooperation was also evident in Tanzania, but in a different way, as exemplified by the new Faculty of Engineering Building at the University of Dar-es-Salaam. West German Architect Georg Lippsmeier was awarded the contract over British firm Norman and Dawbarn, although Norman and Dawbarn had completed the master plan for the campus and had done preliminary design work on the Engineering Building. While it could be argued that Georg Lippsmeier was, by then, a renowned expert in tropical architecture, he had not worked in Tanzania before.45 Norman and Dawbarn had completed a number of projects in East Africa, including the Main Library (1959) and Mitchell Hall (1963) at Makerere University College. Awarding Lippsmeier the contract seemed to signal a shift in power on the ground in Tanzania.46 At the time, West Germany was keen to re-establish links with its former colony, to ensure Tanzania would not switch its diplomatic relations to the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). That possibility had been suggested as part of Tanzania’s transition toward socialism. Submitting a design for the Faculty of Engineering Building was a strategic move by West Germany, seeking to influence education, an important consideration for the young nation.

• 47 For important contributions on the topic for the anglophone sphere, see among others the work of Ł (...)
• 48 Mark Crinson, Modern Architecture and the End of Empire, op. cit. (note 31); Jiat-Hwee Chang, A Ge (...)
• 49 With respect to many of the personalities encountered during this investigation, sources are curre (...)
• 50 For research on Koenigsberger, see among others: Vandana Baweja, A Pre-history of Green Architectu (...)
• 51 Yusuf Hazara Ebrahimi (ed.), Szokolay’s Memoirs – Section C: 1965 Works: Lighting Design, Nairobi: (...)

25The architecture school at the Royal Technical College Nairobi (1954) was one of two schools of architecture founded in British African colonies during the 1950s. The other is the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology at Zaria, Nigeria (1952). Admittedly, research on the emergence of architectural education in sub-Saharan Africa is still far from complete.47 Nevertheless, there was significant influence from global activities. Of interest was the founding in 1954 of the Department of Tropical Architecture (DTS) at the Architectural Association in London. The DTS was an outcome of the Conference on Tropical Architecture held in London in March 1953 and geared to provide training for architects looking to work in the tropics.48 The Conference on Tropical Architecture and the subsequent Oxford Conference on Architectural Education held in 1958 led to a greater emphasis on building science in architecture and architectural education. As the new schools emerged across sub-Saharan Africa during the 1950s, building science was a core part of the curriculum. At the Royal Technical College Nairobi, a significant number of the faculty had been educated at the Architectural Association and had undertaken courses offered by the DTS. The educators influenced by the rise of building science as an integral part of architectural training included G.W. Pollard, the inaugural Head of the Department of Architecture and Art at the Technical College Nairobi, and Derek Morgan who arrived shortly after.49 They inevitably followed the direction of their mentor Otto Koenigsberger, the first director of the DTS, in making building science a core part of the architectural curriculum for the tropics.50 A prominent faculty member at the Technical College Nairobi in 1965 was Steven Szokolay, a student of Koenigsberger. Szokolay was a proponent of building science, and during his time in Nairobi, he worked on what later became the book Introduction to Architectural Science. An early manuscript of his work was recently rediscovered at the University of Nairobi.51

• 52 Miles Danby, “Architectural Education in Africa,” Architect’s Journal, October 1969; Alfred Omenya(...)
• 53 Margaret Potter and Alick Potter, Everything is Possible, op. cit. (note 38), p. 31.
• 54 N. Ola Uduku, “The Colonial Face of Educational Face,” in Lesley Naa Norle Lokke (eds.), White Pap (...)

26The initial program at the Royal Technical College Nairobi during the 1950s provided training for architectural draftsmen to work as assistants to graduates from the UK.52 A broader task of this and other programs at the time was to plant the idea of architecture where “[…] the idea of ‘architect’ […] had scarcely grown before.”53 This situation often placed students in situations far removed (or detached) from the realities of the surrounding environments. The consequential separation instilled in students the values of a largely alien building typology presented as “the only valid and progressive form of architecture”54 across the region. This naturally influenced the direction of the programs.

• 56 James Mulira, The Role of Soviet Bloc Countries in the Political, Economic and Social Developments (...)

29Although the architecture projects discussed in the previous section signified change and innovation initiated by the political changes, the failure to prioritize architectural education left Uganda dependent on foreign-trained architects well into the 1990s. Most students seeking to undertake architecture as a program of study found their way to the United Kingdom, a choice informed by the evident connection with the former colonial master as well as by linguistic considerations. The number of Ugandan students undertaking architectural training abroad was relatively small, as noted by James Mulira, with only 17 out of 1,566 students awarded scholarships between 1962 and 1970 going to study architecture, the majority going to the United Kingdom.56 After their studies, many architects who had studied in the West, such as William Henry Ssentoogo, returned to Uganda and went into private practice. A few continued to complete their PhD studies in anticipation of Uganda launching its own architecture program. These included Dr. Anthony Lubega, who had completed his architecture degree at the Architectural Association in 1964, and his PhD at the University of London in 1969. Lubega was the first indigenous Ugandan to gain a PhD in architecture and on his return to Uganda was appointed Chief Government Architect in the Ministry of Works, Housing and Urban Development.

• 57 Allan Kenneth Birabi, Architectural Education in Uganda: The Role of Pedagogy, Course Design and C (...)
• 58 Stanley S. Mulumba, “Needs for Educational Change,” NIA Journal, vol. 4, no. 2, 1988.

30The decision to start an architecture program at Makerere University was finally made in 1985, more than a decade after it was first mooted. Stanley Mulumba who had completed his PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1974, was appointed as the inaugural Head of the Department, albeit in an acting capacity. Stanley Mulumba had been an early proponent for an architecture program at Makerere University in Kampala.57 Mulumba had initially advocated for a new Faculty of Architecture linked to the School of Fine Art, however, this proposal was strongly resisted. The lack of resources, both human and material further delayed the launch of the program, leading Mulumba to quit his position in 1987.58 Disgruntled, he eventually quit the architecture profession altogether.

• 59 Daniel Magaziner, “The Foundation: Design, Time, and Possibility in 1960s Nairobi,” Comparative St (...)
• 60 Mark R.O. Olweny, Investigating the Processes of Socialisation in Architectural Education, op. cit (...)

31The new Department of Architecture at Makerere University was finally inaugurated in 1989, within the Faculty of Technology (Faculty of Engineering) with Dr. Barnabas Nawangwe as the new Head of Department. The debate over the proper academic context in which to integrate the architecture program echoed discussions that had occurred two decades earlier at the University of Nairobi. Academics like Derek Morgan and Selby Mvusi were critical of the program for failing to address the contextual challenges of East Africa. They argued that the approach being followed at Nairobi, which was based on the application of science and technology, was inappropriate for the design questions graduates were likely to face on completion of the program.59 The decision to integrate the new architecture department of Makerere University within the Faculty of Technology can also be understood as an attempt to strengthen the program’s academic currency, enhanced through association with the long-established engineering profession.60

• 61 See interview with Stephen Mukiibi: Łukasz Stanek and Oleksandr Anisimov, “A Ugandan Architect on (...)
• 62 Sergej G. Fedorov, “Construction History in the Soviet Union-Russia:1930-2005. Emergence, Develope (...)

33Nawangwe was later joined by American architect Rue Ziegler and artist Allan Birabi along with a few practicing architects as adjunct faculty. They had not studied in the former Soviet Union, but other architecture faculty members there had: Stephen Mukiibi (Kiev Institute of Building and Civil Engineering, Ukraine, 1990)61 and Assumpta Naggenda-Musana (Kharkiv State University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Ukraine, 1994). The strong presence of academics with education from Eastern Europe certainly influenced the direction of the program at Makerere University. Most apparent was a focus on the technology of construction, a core element in late-era Soviet architectural education.62 It formed a key part of the architecture program at Makerere University and also influenced the architecture programs that came later in Uganda, including the initial program at the Uganda Martyrs University (UMU) launched in 2000, and the program at the International University of East Africa (IUEA) launched in 2015, which was virtually identical to that at Makerere University.

• 63 The University of Nairobi, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Technical Unive (...)
• 64 Makerere University, Uganda Martyrs University, International University of East Africa and Kyambo (...)
• 65 Ardhi University and University of Dar-es-Salaam.
• 66 See, for instance, the contributions of Łukasz Stanek and Ayala Levin in Beatriz Colomina, Ignacio (...)
• 67 Mark R.O. Olweny, “Questioning the Conventions of Western Architectural Pedagogy in East Africa,” (...)
• 68 Francis Duffy and Andrew Rabeneck, “Professionalism and architects in the 21^st century,” Building (...)
• 69 Mark R.O. Olweny, “Introducing Sustainability into an Architectural Curriculum in East Africa,” In (...)
• 70 Idem, “Architectural Education in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Investigation into Pedagogical Positions (...)

34As of 2023, there are ten schools of architecture spread across East Africa, four in Kenya63 and Uganda64 and two in Tanzania65. Increasingly, the role of architecture in the expression of cultural identity is a topic of discussion. Notwithstanding moves during the 1960s to have architectural education address the “African Condition,” the dominance of approaches that prioritize technically based curricula is still evident.66 A review of architecture programs in 2020 suggests that little had changed, with calls to redefine the role of the architect and to rethink architectural education overshadowed by demands to maintain the status quo to ensure students were “fit for (existing) practice.”67 The challenge is that the architectural profession grafted into East Africa was defined by radically transformed conditions following the Second World War. For Francis Duffy and Andrew Rabeneck, such conditions gave architects significant power and influence, an artificial standing that persists to this day.68 In the context of East Africa (as elsewhere), this artificial condition prevents architects from engaging with pressing concerns such as environmentally conscious design and the climate crisis, continuing with a status quo approach derived from an approach to architecture and architectural education geared to maintain its position of privilege. Moreover, architects face the added challenge of being a largely urban profession with rurality that is still not part of the scope of architecture and architectural education.69 A key question thus emerges: how can a profession transform when much of its knowledge and educational approaches are still tied to decades-old views of what constitutes architecture and architectural education?70

• 71 Basil Bernstein, “Social Class, Language and Socialisation,” in Jerome Karabel and A. H. Halsey (e (...)
• 72 Paul Foster, White to Move? A Portrait of East Africa Today, London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1961; (...)
• 73 “LocalWorks,” LocalWorks, n.d. URL: .https://localworks.ug/ Accessed 26 Octobre 2023.
• 74 As presented in Claire Lubell and Rafico Ruiz (eds.), Fugitive Archives, op. cit. (note 7).

35The legacy of modernist experiments, externally funded projects, and a privileged profession has served as the backdrop to the educational process sowing the seeds of what the sociologist Basil Bernstein described as the social distribution of knowledge.71 The idea of privilege and entitlement embedded within higher education has served to alienate the new African elite (intellectually and culturally) from the wider society they were destined to serve.72 Sadly, the warning issued by Paul Foster more than 60 years ago still rings true today. How then can architectural practice and education seek to redress this situation? LocalWorks, which describes itself as a “multi-disciplinary design and build collaborative,”73 is one firm that is seeking to change the narrative of architecture practice in Uganda. In addition, before her life was cut short, progressive architect Doreen Adengo74 explored urban spaces in an effort to understand how they are transformed over the years.