Asmara: Africa's Secret Modernist City.by Edward Denison This article is about British philanthropist. For U.S. Representative, see Edward E. Denison. Edward Denison (1840-1870) was a British philanthropist, known for his self-denying benevolent labours in the East End of London. , Guang Yu Ren and Naigzy Gebremedhin Merrell Publishers, September 2003 $65.00, ISBN ISBN abbr. International Standard Book Number ISBN International Standard Book Number ISBN n abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m 1-858-94209-8 News of war and famine dominate the popular image of East Africa, our mental picture determined by border disputes on an ever changing map. In literature, the respected travel writer Paul Theroux Paul Edward Theroux (born April 10, 1941) is an American travel writer and novelist, whose best known work is The Great Railway Bazaar (1975), a travelogue about a trip he made by train from Great Britain through Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, through South recently described African cities (all of them, naturally) as "anthills." Asmara: Africa's Secret Modernist City arrives to trouble all these notions; it is a stunning portrait of the singular architecture featured in the so-called "Miami of Africa." Every metropolis on the continent is marked by the fading traces of the colonial debacle, and Eritrea, briefly subject to Mussolini's blind rage to join the rest of Europe, is no different. But the Italian experiment also left behind a wide array of architectural treasures. Geographical and political isolation insured that Asmara, capital of independent Eritrea, was a bit of a bell jar, preserving some of the best examples of Fascist architecture, in addition to Novecento, neoclassical ne·o·clas·si·cism also Ne·o·clas·si·cism n. A revival of classical aesthetics and forms, especially: a. A revival in literature in the late 17th and 18th centuries, characterized by a regard for the classical ideals of reason, form, , neo-Baroque and futurist styles. The book provides a useful summary of Eritrea from pre-history to the present, and the architectural history commences with an explanation of vernacular architecture, its influence on the earliest Italian buildings, and the design of the city in conjunction with a segregationist seg·re·ga·tion·ist n. One that advocates or practices a policy of racial segregation. seg  re·ga plan (a European quarter, mixed quarter for Jewish, Greek and Arab traders, a third for industry and a fourth for natives). This small fact illuminates how the birth of this city and its beauty are tied to a most lamentable la·men·ta·ble adj. Inspiring or deserving of lament or regret; deplorable or pitiable. See Synonyms at pathetic. lam  en·ta·bly adv. past. Celebrating the architectural legacy of Fascism and imperialism may not appeal to all. The colonial city is inevitably a crime scene: the brick, mortar and concrete evidence a terrible catastrophe, while the impossible disrepair of these buildings are testament to further injury, the underdevelopment of Africa in the decades after colonialism. Government headquarters built for invading regimes, hotels, cinemas and villas to house and entertain the settler class are the bones of civilization's worst intentions. To he fair, exploring these tensions is not the work of the architectural monograph (think of those lush tomes worshipping the piteous pit·e·ous adj. 1. Demanding or arousing pity: a piteous appeal for help. See Synonyms at pathetic. 2. Archaic Pitying; compassionate. decay of Havana). By nature of the genre, books like Asmara focus of stylistic virtues and tell only half the story, One cannot look at the buildings featured without wondering about the lives that are lived within. --Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts is a freelance writer in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. . |
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