Building Colonialism by Rhodes Daniel T.;

Author:Rhodes, Daniel T.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781472519269
Publisher: Bloomsbury UK
Published: 2019-11-27T00:00:00+00:00

Figure 13 The control of trade items was the single most important focus of the colonial enterprise. Whether this was the control of international trade seen here in drawings a) and b) showing the design of Bagamoyo Customs Complex (1888) or at a much smaller scale as demonstrated by the simple design of Chole Market (1890) Plan and Elevation of Kilwa Customs House and Chole Market. Both are designed to impound and delineate areas of control.

The subsequent transfer of the district headquarters to Kilwa Mosoko in 1956 is an example of the morphology of later European-designed ‘townships’ under the British Protectorate. As discussed earlier, waterfronts became the dominant European domains and occupied a position of authority between the major transport nodes and the densely occupied indigenous zones. The design of Kilwa Mosoko’s township goes so far as to include a ‘Neutral Zone’ guaranteeing a separation of European elite residences (with specifically allocated recreation space) from indigenous life-ways and activities. European plots also measure approximately 4,046.9m2, while indigenous residences are allocated only 290m2 (Figure 14). This town plan encapsulates the trend in colonial planning at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth. It is strictly orientated in a grid design centred upon the commercial market and gives clear preference to the European elite by not only allocating larger more spacious house plots (including partitioned recreation space), but also places these plots upon the waterfront where they can benefit from the cooler ocean breezes. This form of physical urban control is central to the colonial process in Africa. Towns were designed to specifically segregate Europeans from Africans and give Europeans authoritarian advantages through the location of their offices and residences, both in terms of comfort and physical domination of points of international exchange (i.e. harbours and ports). Towns were designed in order that trade items had to pass by areas of European authority before they could transfer either inward into Africa or outward to the international market. The indigenous zone (or ‘Native House Plots’) centred upon the market, thereby placing the community focus upon economic exchange as dictated by Western ideologies of capitalism. This is indicative of the colonial process as being based solely upon economic activity, further expressed in the design of a European sports ground and the lack of recreation space designed for indigenous peoples. This demonstrates a European mindset that viewed indigenous peoples as economically utilitarian. In essence, the designers of such urban spaces used Africans to form the market structure, both literally and figuratively. A type of inorganic development that was specifically designed to service the colonial process through social and economic control.

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