Introduction

In writing this book, I have wished to produce a reading of recent South African architecture in celebration of one of Africa’s finest critical thinkers, Frantz Fanon. The title for this book, On Questions of African Identity in PostApartheid Public Architectural Design, 1994-2009: White Skin, Black Masks, was chosen with reference to Fanon’s classic study of colonised subjectivity in his renowned book Black Skin, White Masks (BS).1 I contend that the metaphors of mask and skin – as gleaned from Fanon’s title – are suggestive for architectural criticism in the context of post-apartheid public design. Fanon’s non-essentialist theories of race, culture and identity provide a theoretical framework for dealing with the visionary quality of the new architecture and its relation to dominant versus repressed (African) forms of architectural expression – political and aesthetic themes that are central to the book as a whole. White Skin, Black Masks also recognises the fact that the new architecture of the last few years has mostly been designed by white architects – designers who have been asked to adopt an African persona in design.2 And in most cases, these designs have initiated gestures that move architectural discourse in an appropriate direction. On this point, it may be noted that political/aesthetic questions as to what constitutes authentic (or inauthentic) African identity, authentic (or inauthentic) African expression in design are a recurring theme of the book.