Architecture and Development: Israeli Construction in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Settler Colonial Imagination, 1958-1973
by Ayala Levin
Duke University Press, 2022 Cloth: 978-1-4780-1526-0 | Paper: 978-1-4780-1788-2 | eISBN: 978-1-4780-2250-3 Library of Congress Classification NA1591.65.L485 2022
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK In Architecture and Development Ayala Levin charts the settler colonial imagination and practices that undergirded Israeli architectural development aid in Africa. Focusing on the “golden age” of Israel’s diplomatic relations in and throughout the continent from 1958 to 1973, Levin finds that Israel positioned itself as a developing-nation alternative in the competition over aid and influence between global North and global South. In analyses of the design and construction of prestigious governmental projects in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Ethiopia, Levin details how architects, planners, and a trade union--owned construction company staged Israel as a new center of nonaligned expertise. These actors and professionals paradoxically capitalized on their settler colonial experience in Palestine, refashioning it as an alternative to Western colonial expertise. Levin traces how Israel became involved in the modernization of governance, education, and agriculture in Africa, as well as how African leaders chose to work with Israel to forge new South-South connections. In so doing, she offers new ways of understanding the role of architecture as a vehicle of postcolonial development and in the mobilization of development resources.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Ayala Levin is Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture and Urban Design at the University of California, Los Angeles, and coeditor of Architecture in Development: Systems and the Emergence of the Global South.
REVIEWS
“A remarkable addition to the growing literature on the intrinsic plurality of global development experiences. Placing architectural expertise at the center of knowledge transfer between the newly-formed nation-states of Israel and on the African continent, Ayala Levin depicts state building as a parallel activity being undertaken by both provider and receiver of expertise, undoing received notions about ‘developed’ and ‘underdeveloped’ contexts. The sections comparing Israeli approaches toward kibbutzim at home and rural-urban migration patterns in Sierra Leone and Nigeria are nothing short of spectacular.”
-- Arindam Dutta, author of The Bureaucracy of Beauty: Design in the Age of Its Global Reproducibility
“In this rich and wonderfully detailed study, Ayala Levin provides a careful, learned, and multidisciplinary assessment of Israel’s architectural and developmental impact in Africa in which the characters and mindsets of Israeli architects and planners come alive. Scholars of Israeli-African relations, African development studies, African and Israeli architecture, and urban planning in the global South will find Levin’s exposé of Israeli-African geopolitics to be a valuable contribution.”
-- Garth Myers, author of Rethinking Urbanism: Lessons from Postcolonialism and the Global South
“Levin takes the reader on a well-detailed and multifaceted journey.”
-- Gabriel Schwake Connections
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix Introduction. Settler Colonial Expertise in the Theater of Development 1 1. Fast-Tracking the Nation-State: The Design and Construction of the Sierra Leone Parliament 25 2. Rootedness and Open-Ended Planning: The Sierra Leone National Urbanization Plan 68 3. Planning a Postcolonial University Campus: The University of Ife, Nigeria 97 4. Designing the University of Ife: Climate, Regeneration, and Ornament 125 5. Israeli Aid, Private Entrepreneurship, and Architectural Education in Addis Ababa 165 Postscript. Ghosts of Modernity 195 Notes 219 Bibliography 269 Index 295
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Architecture and Development: Israeli Construction in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Settler Colonial Imagination, 1958-1973
by Ayala Levin
Duke University Press, 2022 Cloth: 978-1-4780-1526-0 Paper: 978-1-4780-1788-2 eISBN: 978-1-4780-2250-3
In Architecture and Development Ayala Levin charts the settler colonial imagination and practices that undergirded Israeli architectural development aid in Africa. Focusing on the “golden age” of Israel’s diplomatic relations in and throughout the continent from 1958 to 1973, Levin finds that Israel positioned itself as a developing-nation alternative in the competition over aid and influence between global North and global South. In analyses of the design and construction of prestigious governmental projects in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Ethiopia, Levin details how architects, planners, and a trade union--owned construction company staged Israel as a new center of nonaligned expertise. These actors and professionals paradoxically capitalized on their settler colonial experience in Palestine, refashioning it as an alternative to Western colonial expertise. Levin traces how Israel became involved in the modernization of governance, education, and agriculture in Africa, as well as how African leaders chose to work with Israel to forge new South-South connections. In so doing, she offers new ways of understanding the role of architecture as a vehicle of postcolonial development and in the mobilization of development resources.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Ayala Levin is Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture and Urban Design at the University of California, Los Angeles, and coeditor of Architecture in Development: Systems and the Emergence of the Global South.
REVIEWS
“A remarkable addition to the growing literature on the intrinsic plurality of global development experiences. Placing architectural expertise at the center of knowledge transfer between the newly-formed nation-states of Israel and on the African continent, Ayala Levin depicts state building as a parallel activity being undertaken by both provider and receiver of expertise, undoing received notions about ‘developed’ and ‘underdeveloped’ contexts. The sections comparing Israeli approaches toward kibbutzim at home and rural-urban migration patterns in Sierra Leone and Nigeria are nothing short of spectacular.”
-- Arindam Dutta, author of The Bureaucracy of Beauty: Design in the Age of Its Global Reproducibility
“In this rich and wonderfully detailed study, Ayala Levin provides a careful, learned, and multidisciplinary assessment of Israel’s architectural and developmental impact in Africa in which the characters and mindsets of Israeli architects and planners come alive. Scholars of Israeli-African relations, African development studies, African and Israeli architecture, and urban planning in the global South will find Levin’s exposé of Israeli-African geopolitics to be a valuable contribution.”
-- Garth Myers, author of Rethinking Urbanism: Lessons from Postcolonialism and the Global South
“Levin takes the reader on a well-detailed and multifaceted journey.”
-- Gabriel Schwake Connections
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix Introduction. Settler Colonial Expertise in the Theater of Development 1 1. Fast-Tracking the Nation-State: The Design and Construction of the Sierra Leone Parliament 25 2. Rootedness and Open-Ended Planning: The Sierra Leone National Urbanization Plan 68 3. Planning a Postcolonial University Campus: The University of Ife, Nigeria 97 4. Designing the University of Ife: Climate, Regeneration, and Ornament 125 5. Israeli Aid, Private Entrepreneurship, and Architectural Education in Addis Ababa 165 Postscript. Ghosts of Modernity 195 Notes 219 Bibliography 269 Index 295
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE