A run-down structure standing on Ross Road once served as an important institution in Freetown’s history. Fourah Bay College’s original building, now a national monument, has evolved several times since its creation in 1845. The evolution of this…

The regal estate that fronts Devil’s Peak next to Table Mountain was home to British colonialist, politician and imperialist Cecil John Rhodes (1853-1902), whose belief in Anglo-Saxon supremacy led him to enact voting and property laws that helped…

The French found the climate of Dakar did not always suit their colonial vision of a Beaux-Arts colony, although its Neoclassical and Second Empire architectural styles were key to assimilation. That policy’s design was intended to globally…

One of Cape Town’s most stunning works of architecture is Mutual Heights, formerly called the Old Mutual Building and the Mutual Building, Located in Cape Town Central, it is a masterpiece of Art Deco architecture. Since its opening in 1940, its…

The Oduduwa monument can be found within the grounds of Afewonro Park, located in Enuwa Square near the Ooni’s palace. The fiberglass figure, at the center of the city, represents Oduduwa, the Yoruba orisha or deity who descended from the heavens to…

The Public Works Department (PWD) played a major role in early and later Anglophone colonial architecture and utilities. Although operative in the Ghana's coastal area as early as 1850, the PWD's Kumase presence did not commence until…

The Residency was the home of the British colonial Resident in Kumase, initially sited next to the Fort, the administrative and military center. First erected temporarily in 1895/96 from wood, by 1896 it had transformed into a three-story stone…

In 1817, Asantehene Osei Tutu Kwame Asiba Bonsu relayed his dreams of a new palace to Bowdich, the first European to reach Kumase. The structure would have a brass roof and be built on ivory columns, with gold and silver lining the windows and door.…

When the British allowed Asantehene Prempeh I to return from exile in the Seychelles Islands and resume his position as "Kumasihene" (a term that attempted to limit his sovereignty to Kumase), their former actions left him no palace to return to.…

Ring Road is one of Benin City's busiest intersections, with major roads such as Akpakpava, Airport, Sapele, Forestry, Old Sakpoba, and other streets running off the roundabout in spoke-like fashion. In the middle stands the National Museum,…

St. Matthew's Cathedral is part of the Church of Nigeria Anglican Communion, and the oldest surviving church in Benin. It opened in 1902, just after the Church Missionary Society (CMS) established itself in the city. The land for the church was…

The Benin palace (eguae) shares many contemporary elements with royal accommodations worldwide: air conditioning, electricity, electronics, and a glamorous new facade–an innovation of the current monarch, Oba Ewuare II. Altars to the monarchs of the…