Head Curator Martino Stierli reflects on the buildings, architects, and ideas at the heart of ‘Architects of Liberation’, a landmark exhibition that reconsiders modernism through the histories of post-independence Western Africa.
30 June 2026
Between the late 1950s and early 1980s, a generation of architects helped shape the futures of newly independent nations across Western Africa. Universities, housing estates, civic buildings and cultural institutions became powerful symbols of political freedom, cultural identity and the aspirations of newly sovereign states, embodying the ideals of Pan-Africanism and self-determination. Yet despite their ambition, innovation and lasting significance, many of these architects and their buildings have remained largely absent from mainstream histories of modernism. With Architects of Liberation: Modernism in Western Africa, The Museum of Modern Art presents the first major exhibition dedicated to this transformative period, drawing on four years of groundbreaking research and hundreds of previously unseen archival materials to bring this remarkable architectural legacy into international focus. In conversation with ART AFRICA, Martino Stierli, MoMA’s Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design, reflects on the exhibition, the architects who imagined new futures through architecture, and why their work is finally receiving the global recognition it deserves.
How did the exhibition clarify the complexities of modernism’s dual legacy in Western Africa, both as a colonial inheritance and as a tool for self-determination?
While Art Deco and Tropical Modernist architecture were popular in the late colonial period, liberation brought a new view of modernism as a tool for social change and evidence of progress. The use of foreign-born architects for major projects – such as the Lagos Trade Fair by Yugoslavia’s Energoprojekt and the Hôtel Ivoire by German-Israeli Heinz Fenchel – showed the new alliances of independent countries. It also reflected that sub-Saharan Africa lacked architecture schools until the late 1950s.
At the same time, under ‘Africanization,’ governments invested heavily in education and built the first architecture schools on the continent. They encouraged and sometimes required the hiring of African and African-trained architects. This was the case in state design offices in Ghana (Ghana National Construction Corporation) and Côte d’Ivoire (Bureau National d’Études Techniques et de Développement). In doing so, they rejected the idea that modernism was merely a foreign concept and instead used it to express liberation and hope.
What do the exhibition’s omissions of African architects reveal about the formation of global architectural canons?
The history of modern architecture has usually focused on Europe. The standard story says modernism began with Europe’s early-twentieth-century avant-garde, then spread to places like North America, where it became widely used after World War II. This view meant later uses of modernism were often seen as less important. Our exhibition argues that global modernism should be valued for its adaptability across diverse cultural, economic, and political contexts. African architects in the post-independence era made modernism their own by adapting it to suit their needs. The small number of African architects in standard histories also stems from the scarcity and difficulty of access to archives. While Demas Nwoko is now better known following the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale, our exhibition highlights other West African architects, including Raymond Aka Adjo and Jean Léon from Côte d’Ivoire, as well as Cheikh Ngom from Senegal. We bring their work to a broad audience for the first time, in hopes of encouraging research on their role in shaping their countries’ buildings.
What challenges did you face when researching and reconstructing overlooked architectural histories?
The primary obstacle to our project was the widespread lack of research infrastructure in the region, reflecting the state of the discipline and the unpredictable conditions. The task was further complicated by the fact that, unlike colonial architecture, modernist buildings from the post-independence era have, with few exceptions, not yet received significant scholarly attention. Rather than relying on pre-existing work, it often required basic, foundational research: identifying a comprehensive roster of architects, systematically searching their archives, and seeking out and contacting family. The task was further complicated by the fact that most archives, both on and off the continent, were uncatalogued and incomplete. All of this work could not have been done without a network of young researchers in each city and country, who were essential in identifying works for consideration for our exhibition.
How did the exhibition show architecture’s role in envisioning new political and cultural futures?
Expectations of unlimited future potential abounded during the period of political liberation and decolonisation across the African continent. Bold aspirations and an optimistic outlook on a world yet to come took form in cultural accomplishments, and the promises of modern life were embraced and expressed in diverse arenas such as music, literature, and the visual arts. Modern architecture, too, played a significant role in the desire of newly independent African countries to project – both inward and outward – a forward-looking, progressive, and cosmopolitan self-image. I am thinking of futuristic buildings for the Accra and Lagos Trade Fairs, as well as many government buildings, such as those by the French-born architect Armand Salomon in Yaoundé, Cameroon. As the most public of all forms, architecture gave shape to the economic, political, and cultural aspirations of the liberation period.
How does the exhibition address the gap between modernist ambitions and unfulfilled promises in West Africa?
While the exhibition foregrounds the moment of hope and aspiration in the years immediately following political independence, the catalogue serves as a forum for a more nuanced discussion of the period’s meaning and aftermath. Instead of simply presenting the curators’ points of view, we invited several external writers to ensure a diverse and polyphonic reconsideration of this period. The complexities and contradictions of this period also appear throughout the exhibition. For example, we point to the construction of large hydroelectric dams that brought a modern amenity to hundreds of thousands of people, but at the cost of flooding established villages and displacing their inhabitants. We also point to the dilapidated condition of some featured buildings, highlighting the difficulties governments faced in sustaining the promises made during the independence period over subsequent decades. Our catalogue includes an insightful interview with Sonia Lawson, as well as a Studio NEiDA project at the Hôtel de la Paix in Lomé, Togo, as an example of this type of building.
How did you present collaboration, influence, and power dynamics among African and international architects?
Besides pointing out the frequent collaboration between international and African architects in many of the buildings – for example, Pier Luigi Nervi and Elpidio Olympio, or Godwin and Hopwood, and Olufemi Majekodunmi – the exhibition itself is perhaps not the best-suited medium for developing a more complex argument on this question. Again, the exhibition catalogue provides more essential background information, for instance, on the establishment of the first schools of architecture in the region leading up to and immediately following independence, or the “Africanization” laws in several countries, such as in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, that mandated collaboration between foreign and local architects.
What strategies did you use to avoid oversimplifying the diverse histories within “Western Africa”?
Instead of focusing on the unique cultural histories of each of the seven countries, we started with a shared question from the independence era: how could each country move away from colonial rule and create a new, positive identity? These hopes were often described by ideas of Pan-Africanism. Our advisory board also suggested viewing the region as a common cultural space, since colonial borders did not reflect the actual ethnic and cultural groups. Still, we highlight many architectural projects based on very local traditions. For example, Max Bond’s Bolgatanga library uses shapes from nearby FraFra houses.
How did the exhibition highlight the political and historical significance of African modernist buildings?
While one of the exhibition’s objectives is to celebrate the remarkable architectural quality and ingenuity of many of the buildings represented, additional discursive materials contextualise these buildings within their historical and political realities. Among these are not only the extended wall labels but also the exhibition catalogue and a number of public programs that we are developing with partner institutions and major universities during the exhibition’s run. These will address various aspects of the fascinating and complex legacies of this period. To underscore how these buildings are used and enmeshed in the broader urban fabric of their respective cities, we also commissioned films, on display in the galleries, as well as photography by the French-Ivorian photographer François-Xavier Gbré.
This exhibition is on view at The Museum of Modern Art in New York City until 2 January 2027.
