Settler Coloniality, Decolonising Space, Imagining New Futures

Settler colonialism in urban and rural landscapes in Africa has not only meant dispossession of land; it is also an ongoing system of power-use that has sought to homogenise, sterilise and decontextualise space and place. This linear way of thinking perpetuates the repression and genocide of peoples, and the exploitation of cultures, land and resources. It continues to alienate non-White people from their genealogical relations with nature and the non-visible world. While many African countries have enjoyed independence for decades, the quest for development, urbanisation, modernisation and globalisation has sustained and reproduced spatial inequality and exclusion for the majority of poor non-Whites. Decolonisation as a project has been undertaken in various ways by different actors, yet a modernist approach in urban and rural architectural design persists. It is rooted in the dominant culture, in the decontextualisation of people, space and time, undermining issues related to eco-diversity, transitional justice, restoration and diversity. This situation deeply reinforces hopelessness, fearfulness, a sense of scarcity and displacement, and an inability to imagine future cities where everyone belongs.

In this conversation, we’ll reflect on our past and our hopes for a decolonised future, imagining future urban and rural places and spaces that are resilient, anticipatory, inclusive, autonomous and technologically disruptive.