Reviews
BOOK REVIEW
Architecture, Islam, and Identity in West Africa:
Lessons from Larabanga
A
rchitecture, Islam, and
Identity in West Africa
reveals the relationship
between architecture
and Islamic identity in
West Africa.
The book looks broadly
across Muslim West
Africa and offers an indepth study of the village of Larabanga,
a small Muslim community in Northern
Ghana, to help readers see how the built
environment encodes cultural history
through form, material, and space,
creating an architectural narrative that
outlines the contours of this distinctive
Muslim identity.
Apotsos explores how modern technology,
heritage, and tourism have increasingly
affected the contemporary architectural
character of this community, revealing the
village’s current state of social, cultural,
and spiritual flux. More than 60 black and
white images illustrate how architectural
components within this setting express
the distinctive narratives, value systems,
and realities that make up the unique
composition of this Afro-Islamic
community.
Author Michelle Apotsos is an Assistant
Professor in the Department of Art at
Williams College, Massachusetts where
she specializes in African architecture
and the arts of the Afro-Islamic world.
Her research focuses on the intersections
between Afro-Islamic identity,
architecture, and modernization as they
are occurring in contemporary Africa. She
received her PhD from Stanford University
in 2013.
AUTHOR: Michelle Apostos
PAPERBACK: 232 pages
PUBLISHER: Routledge; Reprint edition
(May 21, 2016)
ISBN: 978-1138192461
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