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Repenser les limites : l’architecture à travers l’espace, le temps et les disciplines
Préambule : repenser les limites : l’architecture à travers l’espace, le temps et les disciplines
Introduction
The Ritual Frame and the Limits of Spatial Enclosure in the Early Modern City
Of Aryan Origin(s), Western Canon(s), and Iranian Modernity
Les frontières de la Renaissance
Introduction
On the Modern Cult of Authenticity: Prolegomena to a Study of Berlin’s Pergamon Museum
Building Commodity: Consumption/Production of a Nineteenth Century Ottoman/British “Iron House for a Corn-Mill”
Traveling Words and Images: The Question of “Foreignness” in the History of Modern Architecture in Turkey
Spatial Structures in Colonial Latin America, New Perspectives in Urban Historiography
L’espace construit en Amérique latine coloniale. Perspectives d’étude
Indigenous Contributions to City Planning in New Spain
Settlements for the Indigenous Population in Portuguese America
Colonial Settlement Planning of the Andes in Space and Time
Colonial Settlements in the Río de la Plata: Between Transference and Development of Spanish Urban Models
Introduction
Critique of Industrialization and Non-Institutional Architecture: Architectural Exhibition by the Tallinn School in 1978
Introduction
Les grands concours internationaux (1895-1914) : vecteurs parallèles de diffusion de l’architecture française ?
Rewriting Congo’s Colonial Past: History, Memory, and Colonial Built Heritage in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Looking at Collaboration as a Key to Creative Expression: The Case of Colonial Architecture
Actors and Vectors: Towards Alternate Histories of the City-Building Process
Histoire de l’architecture contemporaine en Méditerranée : questions de méthode et d’historiographie
A Sense of Place: A Treatise on Prostitution in Seventeenth-Century Paris
Toward a Critical Historiography of Islamic Architecture
Le néoclassicisme n’est pas un classicisme. Une mutation dans les livres d’architecture
L’histoire de l’architecture et du design au XIXe siècle : avant et après l’authenticité
Introduction
Stratégies éditoriales et architectures de l’histoire : Louis Hautecœur et Gérard Van Oest, un dessein partagé
Architecture, Regionalism, and the Vernacular:Reconceptualizing Modernism in America
Phenomenology and the Rise of the Architect-Historian
Les temps de l’architecture gothique dans les Alpes occidentales : les limites impossibles
Spécialisation des disciplines et enseignement de l'Antiquité : glissements du centre de gravité entre Vienne et l'Italie
Styles et périodisation : méthodes croisées dans l’approche de l’architecture des XVIIIe et XIXe siècles
Méthodologie du Goût à la grecque sous Louis XV
Jacques-François Blondel à son apogée (1749-1756)
Un laboratoire des styles : les académies dans la seconde moitié du XVIIIe siècle ?
De la rupture au progrès (1840-1860)
Une option stylistique minoritaire : le néo-arabe, à travers l’architecture des halles métalliques en Espagne au XIXe siècle
L’Orientalisme, entre connaissance et réinterprétation de l’architecture islamique
Le temps n’a pas de frontières : le cas de l’histoire de l’architecture (1570-1670)
La configuration architecturale de la ville et de sa périphérie au Moyen Âge : la dynamique des limites
Le Vexin français : reflets de l’architecture défensive en milieu urbain et périurbain à la fin du Moyen Âge
Introduction
Les Français et les antiquités de la Gaule : l’émergence de la conscience antiquaire à la Renaissance
Introduction
Que faire de l’édifice-événement ?
Questioning Authenticity
Le patrimoine architectural moderne en contexte africain
L’architecture des années 60 : quand l’histoire est dépassée par le patrimoine
L’enclos comme parcelle et totalité du monde : pour une approche holistique de l’art des jardins1
L’historiographie, la réception et les restaurations de deux architectures des années 1730 : la fontaine du Gros-Horloge à Rouen et la façade de l’Ancienne Comédie à Avignon
La fortune d'une production ordinaire : les immeubles parisiens d'Albert-Joseph Sélonier (1858-1926)
Introduction
Architecture, rhétorique et création littéraire au XVIe siècle
Architecture et droit : mimesis théoriques et liaisons pratiques
L'inadaptation des limites géographiques et historiques comme reflet d'une confusion des limites disciplinaires ?
Introduction
Architecture and the Genres of History Writing in Ecclesiastical Historiography
Deconstructing the Doctrine of Disegno
The London Conceptualists: Architecture and Conceptual Art in the 1970s
Controverses autour de l’axe héliothermique : l’apport de la simulation physique à l’analyse des théories urbaines
Analyser à l’aide de modèles électroniques tridimensionnels. Les piliers de la chapelle de la Vierge de la cathédrale de Rouen
Digitalizing the Dutch. About interactivity versus boundaries and other ways to present and read architectural history
Reordering the Past: Monuments and Architectural Heritage in Post-Apartheid South Africa
Architecture, Hybridity, and Post-Apartheid Design
Introduction
Le projet de réhabilitation de Porto-Novo (Bénin) : objectifs en termes de conservation et de développement durable
Réhabilitation des centres urbains historiques : apport pour le développement local
Quelques expériences sur la gestion des centres historiques en Amérique latine
Conclusion : inventaire des questions mentionnées au cours de l'atelier à propos de la réhabilitation des centres urbains historiques dans un contexte de développement économique
Introduction
Fact and fiction: documents of the development of Parisian urban design history
The Birth of Urban Design History out of the Spirit of Multidisciplinarity
Le romantisme espagnol et l’historiographie de l’architecture
Repenser les limites de l’architecture : un acte politique
Résumés / Abstracts
- Table des matières
Préambule
Alice Thomine-Berrada et Barry BergdollPréambule : repenser les limites : l’architecture à travers l’espace, le temps et les disciplines
Actes du colloque qui s’est tenu à Paris, les 31 août-3 septembre 2005
Limites spatiales
Eve BlauIntroduction
Jean GuillaumeLes frontières de la Renaissance
Complexité des géographies : situer les différences en histoire de l'architecture
Belgin Turan Ozkaya et Elvan Altan ErgutIntroduction
S. M. Can BilselOn the Modern Cult of Authenticity: Prolegomena to a Study of Berlin’s Pergamon Museum
Structures territoriales des colonies d'Amérique latine : nouvelles perspectives historiographiques en architecture et urbanisme
Catherine R. Ettinger-McEnultySpatial Structures in Colonial Latin America, New Perspectives in Urban Historiography
Structures territoriales des colonies d’Amérique latine : nouvelles perspectives historiographiques en architecture et urbanisme
Guadalupe Salazar-GonzálezL’espace construit en Amérique latine coloniale. Perspectives d’étude
Eugenia María Azevedo-Salomao et Catherine R. Ettinger-McEnultyIndigenous Contributions to City Planning in New Spain
Andrey Rosenthal Schllee et Marília Maria Brasileiro Teixeira ValeSettlements for the Indigenous Population in Portuguese America
Alberto NicoliniColonial Settlement Planning of the Andes in Space and Time
Luis María Calvo, Adriana Collado et Luis Alberto MüllerColonial Settlements in the Río de la Plata: Between Transference and Development of Spanish Urban Models
Architecture socialiste, entre isolement et fascination
Carmen PopescuIntroduction
Dynamiques transnationales : nouvelles approches de la modernité et des terrains coloniaux
Mercedes VolaitIntroduction
Marie-Laure Crosnier-LeconteLes grands concours internationaux (1895-1914) : vecteurs parallèles de diffusion de l’architecture française ?
Espaces, rituels, pratiques
Limites temporelles
Nasser RabbatToward a Critical Historiography of Islamic Architecture
Jean-Philippe GarricLe néoclassicisme n’est pas un classicisme. Une mutation dans les livres d’architecture
Stefan MuthesiusL’histoire de l’architecture et du design au XIXe siècle : avant et après l’authenticité
Borders in time: 19th Century architectural history, before and after
Histoire, Historiens
Jean-Louis CohenIntroduction
Antonio BrucculeriStratégies éditoriales et architectures de l’histoire : Louis Hautecœur et Gérard Van Oest, un dessein partagé
Jorge Otero-PailosPhenomenology and the Rise of the Architect-Historian
La phénoménologie et l'émergence de l'architecte comme historien
Martine JullianLes temps de l’architecture gothique dans les Alpes occidentales : les limites impossibles
Repenser le XIXe siècle : reflets du débat européen sur l'Italie
Styles et périodisation : méthodes croisées dans l'approche de l'architecture des XVIIIe et XIXe siècles
Daniel Rabreau et Jean-Michel LeniaudStyles et périodisation : méthodes croisées dans l’approche de l’architecture des XVIIIe et XIXe siècles
Styles and periodisation : inter-related methodologies for understanding 18th and 19th Centuries Architecture
Daniel RabreauMéthodologie du Goût à la grecque sous Louis XV
Edoardo PiccoliJacques-François Blondel à son apogée (1749-1756)
Jean-Michel LeniaudDe la rupture au progrès (1840-1860)
La configuration architecturale de la ville et de sa périphérie au Moyen Âge : la dynamique des limites
Brigitte Boissavit-Camus et Panayota VoltiLa configuration architecturale de la ville et de sa périphérie au Moyen Âge : la dynamique des limites
Architectural structure of cities and their peripheries during the Middle Ages: Dynamic Boudaries
Architecture et archéologie à la Renaissance
Frédérique LemerleIntroduction
Repenser les limites temporelles : l'histoire de l'architecture et le défi du patrimoine moderne
Maristella CasciatoIntroduction
Gérard MonnierQue faire de l’édifice-événement ?
Hilde HeynenQuestioning Authenticity
Lazare EloundouLe patrimoine architectural moderne en contexte africain
Limites disciplinaires
Hervé Brunon et Monique MosserL’enclos comme parcelle et totalité du monde : pour une approche holistique de l’art des jardins
The enclosure as plot and as totality of the world: towards a holistic approach to the art of gardens
Fortune, infortune de l'architecture
Architecture, sciences, sciences humaines
David Van ZantenIntroduction
Robert Carvais et Dirk Van de VijverArchitecture et droit : mimesis théoriques et liaisons pratiques
Reconsidérer les frontières disciplinaires de l'architecture du XVIe et XVIIe siècles en Italie
Caroline Van EckIntroduction
Lionel DevliegerDeconstructing the Doctrine of Disegno
Les années 1970 : penser le futur, la communauté et la technologie en architecture et en urbanisme
Sandra Kaji-O’GradyThe London Conceptualists: Architecture and Conceptual Art in the 1970s
Amina Harzallah, Daniel Siret, Eric Monin et al.Controverses autour de l’axe héliothermique : l’apport de la simulation physique à l’analyse des théories urbaines
Markus SchlichtAnalyser à l’aide de modèles électroniques tridimensionnels. Les piliers de la chapelle de la Vierge de la cathédrale de Rouen
Margit Tamás et Ir Héctor GiróDigitalizing the Dutch. About interactivity versus boundaries and other ways to present and read architectural history
Histoire de l'architecture de l'Afrique du Sud après l'Apartheid
Sabine MarschallReordering the Past: Monuments and Architectural Heritage in Post-Apartheid South Africa
Jonathan NobleArchitecture, Hybridity, and Post-Apartheid Design
Histoire de l'architecture et mise en valeur du patrimoine : pour un dialogue entre restaurateurs et économistes
Christine MenginIntroduction
Alain GodonouLe projet de réhabilitation de Porto-Novo (Bénin) : objectifs en termes de conservation et de développement durable
L'histoire de l'urbanisme comme domaine inter-disciplinaire : franchissements de frontières dans les années de formation (1890-1940)
Wolfgang SonneIntroduction
Conclusion
- imprimer
- Citer
Référence électronique du chapitre
LAGAE, Johan. Rewriting Congo’s Colonial Past: History, Memory, and Colonial Built Heritage in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo In : Repenser les limites : l’architecture à travers l’espace, le temps et les disciplines : 31 août - 4 septembre 2005 [en ligne]. Paris : Publications de l’Institut national d’histoire de l’art, 2005 (généré le 28 mars 2024). Disponible sur Internet : <https://books.openedition.org/inha/499>. ISBN : 978-2-917902-64-6. DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/books.inha.499.Lagae, J. 2005. Rewriting Congo’s Colonial Past: History, Memory, and Colonial Built Heritage in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo. In Thomine-Berrada, A., & Bergdol, B. (Eds.), Repenser les limites : l’architecture à travers l’espace, le temps et les disciplines : 31 août - 4 septembre 2005. Paris : Publications de l’Institut national d’histoire de l’art. doi :10.4000/books.inha.499Lagae, Johan. “Rewriting Congo’s Colonial Past: History, Memory, and Colonial Built Heritage in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo”. Thomine-Berrada, Alice, et Barry Bergdol. Repenser les limites : l’architecture à travers l’espace, le temps et les disciplines : 31 août - 4 septembre 2005. Paris : Publications de l’Institut national d’histoire de l’art, 2005. Web. <https://books.openedition.org/inha/499>.Référence électronique du livre
THOMINE-BERRADA, Alice (dir.) ; BERGDOL, Barry (dir.). Repenser les limites : l’architecture à travers l’espace, le temps et les disciplines : 31 août - 4 septembre 2005. Nouvelle édition [en ligne]. Paris : Publications de l’Institut national d’histoire de l’art, 2005 (généré le 28 mars 2024). Disponible sur Internet : <https://books.openedition.org/inha/30>. ISBN : 978-2-917902-64-6. DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/books.inha.30.Thomine-Berrada, A., & Bergdol, B. (Eds.) 2005. Repenser les limites : l’architecture à travers l’espace, le temps et les disciplines : 31 août - 4 septembre 2005. Paris : Publications de l’Institut national d’histoire de l’art. doi :10.4000/books.inha.30Thomine-Berrada, Alice, et Barry Bergdol, ed. Repenser les limites : l’architecture à travers l’espace, le temps et les disciplines : 31 août - 4 septembre 2005. Paris : Publications de l’Institut national d’histoire de l’art, 2005. Web. <https://books.openedition.org/inha/30>.Compatible avec Zotero - Partager URL :
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Rewriting Congo’s Colonial Past: History, Memory, and Colonial Built Heritage in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Résumé
By focusing on the colonial architecture and urbanism of Lubumbashi, the second major city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, this text aims to illustrate that the built environment in colonial Congo took shape not only through architectural ideas and models imported from the métropole or according to the common guidelines of Belgian colonial policies, but also via a complex process in which many diverse spheres of influence were at play. The urban form of Lubumbashi, which since its foundation was a cosmopolitan enclave, was shaped by a multiplicity of actors testifying of the presence of a variety of groups and identities within both the city’s white and black communities. By constructing a historical narrative that goes beyond a mere binary analytical framework of “colonizer” versus “colonized,” this text also aims to form the starting point for a critical assessment of the notion “shared heritage” as applied to the built legacy in former colonial territories.
Lubumbashi, a cosmopolitan city in the former Belgian Congo
- 1 Bruce Fetter, The Creation of Elisabethville, Stanford, 1976.
- 2 For a late 1940s survey of Lubumbashi’s population, see Ministère des colonies, Urbanisme au Congo (...)
- 3 On colonial architecture in the Belgian Congo and information on the architects discussed here, see (...)
1Lubumbashi was created ex nihilo in 1910 in the context of promising mining expeditions undertaken in the region since the late nineteenth century.1 At first sight, it looks very much a prototype colonial city. Already the very first urban plan shows separate European native settlements, and this racial segregation would become more explicit in later schemes. The visual representation of Lubumbashi in colonial propaganda further more highlighted the triad power structure underscoring the Belgian colonial project, by depicting the major buildings associated with the colonial government, the missionary congregations, and colonial companies, such as the imposing infrastructure of the Union Minière du Haut Katanga (UMHK). But Lubumbashi was not just another Belgian colonial city. Because of its very particular geographical location, situated on the crossroads of Central and Southern Africa, it had been from the very beginning a cosmopolitan urban enclave, in terms of both the European and the African population.2 In fact, the immigration triggered by the arrival of the first railroad coming from Zambia (the former Northern Rhodesia) in 1910 immediately countered the geopolitical strategy of locating Lubumbashi as a Belgian enclave close to the border in order to block the British influx from the south. The British were not the only non-Belgian Europeans in Lubumbashi.3 From the very beginning, a significant Italian presence was noticeable and the city further more had inhabitants from Greece, Russia, Germany, Turkey, Switzerland, Portugal, etc. An important Jewish community, a large part of which came from Rhodes (Italy) in the 1920s, resided in Lubumbashi. The African population of Lubumbashi also had different origins, which largely resulted from the policy of several colonial companies recruiting their labor force from often far away regions. It made Lubumbashi into a melting pot of African cultures, with the presence of people coming from various regions in the Congo, Southern Africa, Rwanda, Burundi or even Senegal. Social differences ran all across Lubumbashi’s urban society and structured relationships within as well as between the white and black urban communities. Most non-Belgian Europeans were active in (small) trade or craftsmanship-like activities. Portuguese, Greek, or Jewish traders were reputed for entertaining a more direct contact with the African population as did Belgian colonial agents, giving the former a status of so-called “Blancs du second rang” in the eyes of the latter. Missionary education, both Catholic and Protestant, created a community of “intermediary” Africans, positioned between a large illiterate black population and the white community.
The built fabric of a segregated city
- 4 A. De Hertogh, “Pour commencer...,” Tekhné, no. 1 (1911), pp. 10–11.
- 5 See Johan Lagae, “In search of a ‘comme chez soi’. The ideal colonial house in Congo (1885–1960),” (...)
- 6 Raymond Cloquet, “L’Art de bâtir au Katanga,” Le Matériel Colonial, no. 104 (1932), pp. 57–74.
- 7 Udo Kultermann, ed., World Architecture. A Critical Mosaic 1900–2000. Vol. 6. Central and Southern (...)
- 8 Bruno De Meulder, De kampen van Kongo, Louvain, 1996.
- 9 Fernand Grévisse, Le Centre Extra-Coutumier d’Elisabethville. Quelques aspects de la politique indi (...)
- 10 Georges Brausch, Belgian Administration in the Congo, London, 1961; Nicolas Esgain, “Scènes de la v (...)
2This multiplicity of agents and the transnational spheres of influence are clearly reflected in the built fabric of colonial Lubumbashi. The general scheme of the first urban plan, designed by the Swiss engineer Itten around 1911, for instance, was modeled on South African and Rhodesian cities such as Bulawayo. The railroad moreover created a quick and efficient means for importing building materials from those regions, such as cast iron building parts. The Belgian architectural magazine Tekhné, immediately critiqued this copying of “horrible” foreign models and lamented the invasion of Congo’s booming building market by “people from elsewhere.”4 Not before the mid-1920s did Belgian architects arrive, introducing a more metropolitan design practice, as can be seen from some Art Deco and Modernist public buildings, even if their formal language and ornamentation sometimes was “Africanized.” At the same time, new villa-type houses inspired by the residential architecture in Belgian garden-city enclaves were erected for colonial agents, replacing the earlier bungalow typology, which itself had been imported from English and Dutch tropical colonies.5 As such, in only a couple of years the urban realm of Lubumbashi changed from a “Far West”-environment into a city “pervaded by the kind of European atmosphere one only found in a previous century in South African cities.” as architect Raymond Cloquet declared in 1931.6 Primarily an interwar city, some remarkable constructions in Lubumbashi date from the 1950s: the monumental classicist Athenée Royal or the cultural center comprising a theater, museum, and music school, designed by the local architectural office Yenga in a poetic, sculptural version of postwar tropical modernism. That transnational influences continued in the postwar period, however, is demonstrated by a highly acclaimed housing complex of the late 1950s, co-authored by the South African architect Julian Elliot.7
It was not until the mid-1950s that architectural considerations underscored the construction of native towns in Lubumbashi. The colorful, modernist aesthetic of the 1950s housing units designed by the Office des Cités Africaines was highly acclaimed by the international professional milieu, yet received with modest enthusiasm by the African community. The building of previous native towns had almost completely been governed by a highly rationalized design approach, while the construction of the workers’ camps of the UMHK was a radical project of social engineering carried out by doctors and engineers and exclusively based on considerations of hygiene, cost-efficiency, and control.8 The South African compound counted as a major source of inspiration in this context, while the major 1920s urban operation of erasing and rebuilding Lubumbashi’s first African settlement also was influenced by South African experiences of Belgian colonial officials.9 It induced a neat physical separation between the European town and the native town by means of a zone neutre or cordon sanitaire that, as in other colonial territories in sub-Saharan Africa, was complemented by numerous laws enforcing racial segregation and restricting mobility. Daily life in colonial Lubumbashi was undeniably pervaded by a “color bar.”10 Yet, the colonial encounter was a complex one that surpasses a purely antagonistic scheme, as is evidenced by the continuous presence of domestic servants in Lubumbashi’s European neighborhood. In fact, this induced intense moments of “living apart together,” that are still informing the urban memories of the city’s [former] inhabitants.
Affirming identities within a segregated urban environment
3If major differences characterize Lubumbashi’s European town and native towns in terms of building materials, comfort, space occupation, or mobility, on closer analysis, these were not homogeneous urban entities in themselves. While this holds true for Lubumbashi’s African neighborhoods, I will focus here only on a few examples in the European town to demonstrate how the urban tissue reflects the heterogeneity of Lubumbashi’s European community.
The grid structure of Lubumbashi’s European town, before all the product of real estate policies, was not completely uniform, but differentiated by means of a hierarchy of avenues, while one diagonally running boulevard and the inclusion of squares and green spaces allowed for a certain articulation in residential, commercial, and administrative zones (fig. 1).
Fig. 1: Urban plan of Lubumbashi’s European town, 1929 (Brochure Compagnie Foncière du Katanga, La Maison au Katanga, Bruxelles, 2nd edition, 1930)
4In this urban landscape, each group within the white community sought to mark and affirm its identity by erecting distinctive buildings, such as the Italian consulate, the Greek Orthodox Church (fig. 2), or the synagogue, one of Lubumbashi’s most striking architectural artifacts (fig. 3).
- 11 This denomination refers to the highly symbolic Belgian victory over German troops in East Africa i (...)
- 12 Till today, one of the “urban myths” has it that the cathedral and the residence are linked by mean (...)
5A part from their formal distinctiveness, the peculiar sites of some of the city’s main public buildings unveil particular relationships and even tensions within the white community. Facing a major crossroads close to the railway station, the synagogue, for instance, stands at one of the extremities of the main boulevard, the so-called Avenue de Tabora,11 along which are situated all public buildings representing Belgian colonial power: on the Place Royale in the middle are located the palace of justice, the commissariat de district and the meeting place of the colonial elite, the Cercle Albert-Elisabeth. Ending the vista of this boulevard on the other side is the cathedral, a building in a Neo-Roman style conceived in 1921 as a monument representing the triumph of Christianity in Katanga. The cathedral blocks the view of the park and the governor’s residence from the city center (fig. 4), yet the physical proximity of these two buildings clearly marked a strong symbolic site of Belgian colonial power for the city’s inhabitants.12
- 13 Nicolas Esgain, La vie quotidienne.
6The cathedral, however, also hints at internal conflicts within Lubumbashi’s white community as the choice of its location was subject of difficult and long-lasting negotiations between the colonial government and the two Catholic congregations active in the region.13 Such conflicts also underscored the choice of site of the 1928 Methodist church, built in Neo-Gothic style. Even if it closes the vista of the avenue running between the cathedral and the governor’s park, it is in fact situated in the zone neutre, as the Belgian government, no doubt at the request of the Catholic missionaries, had not granted the Protestants permission to build within the confines of the European town.
A shared heritage?
- 14 See http://lubumculture.site.voila.fr/patriarchi.htm.
- 15 Stuart Hall, “Whose Heritage? Un-settling ‘The Heritage’, RE-imagining the Post-Nation,” in Ziauddi (...)
- 16 The work on Congolese colonial memories by scholars such as Johannes Fabian, Bogumil Jewsiewicki, a (...)
- 17 The notion “shared heritage” is used, among others, by Icomos to deal with colonial built legacy.
7By arguing that Lubumbashi’s building history forces us to reconsider the binary analytical framework of “colonizer” and “colonized” when re-reading Congo’s colonial past, this text is mainly historiographical in scope. Lubumbashi’s built legacy, however, also triggers a reflection on heritage issues. If these colonial buildings constitute an important architectural legacy, as was evidenced in September 2005 by the first Journées du Patrimoine organized by the French Cultural Center in Lubumbashi,14 they also, as products of a cosmopolitan colonial society, confront us with a key question of the contemporary heritage debate that Stuart Hall poignantly formulated as “whose heritage?”15 In future studies, we aim to elaborate further on Pierre Nora’s notion of “realm of memory” and investigate this built heritage in both its tangible and intangible aspects.16 For Lubumbashi’s multiple sites of memory reveal complex, dynamic, and often divergent memories of its various former inhabitants that ask for a critical assessment of the notion “shared heritage” as it is currently applied to former colonial territories.17
Notes de fin
1 Bruce Fetter, The Creation of Elisabethville, Stanford, 1976.
2 For a late 1940s survey of Lubumbashi’s population, see Ministère des colonies, Urbanisme au Congo belge, Bruxelles, [1950]. For a first historical analysis, see Nicolas Esgain, La vie quotidienne à Elisabethville (1912-1932) : émergence d’une culture urbaine, unpublished dissertation, Louvain-la-Neuve, 1997.
3 On colonial architecture in the Belgian Congo and information on the architects discussed here, see various entries by Johan Lagae in Anne Van Loo, Dictionnaire de l’architecture en Belgique de 1839 à nous jours, Antwerp, 2003. On the urbanism of Lubumbashi, see Bruno De Meulder, Kuvuande Mbote, Antwerp, 2000, pp. 71–92.
4 A. De Hertogh, “Pour commencer...,” Tekhné, no. 1 (1911), pp. 10–11.
5 See Johan Lagae, “In search of a ‘comme chez soi’. The ideal colonial house in Congo (1885–1960),” in Jean-Luc Vellut, Itinéraires croisés de la modernité. Congo belge (1920-1950), Tervuren/Paris, 2000, pp. 239–281.
6 Raymond Cloquet, “L’Art de bâtir au Katanga,” Le Matériel Colonial, no. 104 (1932), pp. 57–74.
7 Udo Kultermann, ed., World Architecture. A Critical Mosaic 1900–2000. Vol. 6. Central and Southern Africa, Vienna, 2000, p. xxiv, p. xxviii, and pp. 50–51.
8 Bruno De Meulder, De kampen van Kongo, Louvain, 1996.
9 Fernand Grévisse, Le Centre Extra-Coutumier d’Elisabethville. Quelques aspects de la politique indigène du Haut-Katanga industriel, Brussels, 1951.
10 Georges Brausch, Belgian Administration in the Congo, London, 1961; Nicolas Esgain, “Scènes de la vie quotidienne à Elisabethville dans les années vingt,” in Vellut, Itinéraires croisés, pp. 57–70.
11 This denomination refers to the highly symbolic Belgian victory over German troops in East Africa in 1916.
12 Till today, one of the “urban myths” has it that the cathedral and the residence are linked by means of a (nonexistent) underground tunnel.
13 Nicolas Esgain, La vie quotidienne.
14 See http://lubumculture.site.voila.fr/patriarchi.htm.
15 Stuart Hall, “Whose Heritage? Un-settling ‘The Heritage’, RE-imagining the Post-Nation,” in Ziauddin Sarder et al., eds., The Third Text Reader on Art, Culture and Theory, London, 2002, pp. 72–84.
16 The work on Congolese colonial memories by scholars such as Johannes Fabian, Bogumil Jewsiewicki, and Donatien Dibwe forms an important starting point in this respect.
17 The notion “shared heritage” is used, among others, by Icomos to deal with colonial built legacy.
Auteur
Johan Lagae
Johan Lagae holds a PhD in architectural history from the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, Ghent University. His work focuses on colonial architecture in Central Africa (mainly the former Belgian Congo) and the architecture of 1930s World’s Fairs. He contributed to numerous books, exhibitions, and journals (Journal of Architecture, Third Text). He is one of the editors of OASE.