Changes in Post-Colonies: Responding to the Imperial Built Environment

Changes in Post-Colonies

When empires retreated after violent insurrections, they left behind significant built environments. The fate of these structures and monuments varied across post-colonies:

• Some were destroyed.

• Some were renamed and appropriated.

• Policies and perspectives shifted over time.

• Traces of the imperial past remained visible throughout the post-colonial world.

Toponymic Changes: Renaming Public Spaces

Tunisia (Independence: 1956)

• Authorities renamed many primary streets, avenues, plazas, and institutions to honor individuals and events relevant to Tunisians, signifying a declaration of sovereignty.

• Examples in Tunis:

  • Central Avenue Jules Feli was renamed Avenue Habib Bourguiba (on the anniversary of the first president's return from French-imposed exile).

  • A portion of Paris Avenue became Liberty Avenue.

  • Place De La Fontaine was renamed Independence Square.

• Retention: Not all names were changed; France Avenue and Avenue Charles De Gaulle still exist.

Kenya (Independence: 1963)

• Quickly initiated a process of decolonization, including the reappropriation of public spaces and symbols.

• Street names referencing the British state, which emphasized control, dominance, and assimilation, were changed.

• Nairobi's streets:

  • Originally named using numbers.

  • By $1925$, most were replaced with British names and some Indian names (reflecting the Indian presence), a process described as anglicization.

• Renaming Process:

  • Carried out by a street naming committee within the government.

  • Operated without a concrete plan until $1972$, when an annual law for naming and renaming streets was adopted.

  • The process was continuous and complex, reflecting the redescription of public memory and identity, requiring negotiation and concession.

• Examples:

  • Railway Lane remained Railway Lane.

  • Duke Street became Ronald Ngala Street.

  • Coronation Avenue became Harambee Avenue.

  • Grogan Road became Kirinyaga Road.

  • Market Street remained Market Street.

  • Princess Elizabeth Way became Uhuru Highway.

  • Ethiopian President Haile Selassie also had a street named after him.

Changing of Script (Tunisia)

• Another aspect of postcolonial change in Tunisia was the shift from the Latin script of French colonialism to Arabic script.

• Example: The Hotel de Post (postal headquarters) in Tunisia, built in $1892$, initially had French inscriptions.

Destruction of Colonial Structures

• In some cases, buildings strongly associated with the French occupying force were deemed worthy of destruction.

• Example: The postal headquarters/Municipal Theatre in Tunisia.

  • Known to have been used in part as a prison for Tunisian nationalists, including Habib Bourguiba.

  • In $1959$, a few years after independence, it was razed to the ground.

  • The site now hosts the city hall and a monument to Tunisian nationalists.

Relocation of Monuments

• Some monuments were simply relocated, often to a less prominent or 'exiled' location.

• Example: New Delhi, as British India's imperial capital, was dotted with statues of prominent British colonialists.

  • The most prominent was the statue of Emperor King George V, located under a stone canopy opposite the All India Memorial (India Gate).

  • It remained in place for several years after Indian independence.

  • Finally removed in the $1960s$ as Indian leaders shifted their thinking on the political ramifications of retaining imperial statuary.

  • Relocated, along with other statues, to Coronation Park.

Replacement of Statues

• In other instances, statues were completely replaced.

• Example: Nairobi, Kenya.

  • A statue of George V was installed outside the Nairobi law courts in $1928$.

  • This was replaced in $1973$ by a statue of Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya's first president, following independence.

  • The replacement coincided with the tenth anniversary of independence.

  • The bronze seated figure is $12$ feet tall (double life-size) and was sculpted by a British artist in $1969$.

  • It celebrated Kenyatta, depicted in indigenous regalia.

Reappropriation of Colonial Built Environments

• This involves adapting existing colonial structures or monuments to new uses or imbuing them with new meanings.

The Viceroy's House (New Delhi)

• Designed by British architect Edward Lutyens (who also designed the master plan of New Delhi).

• Lord Irwin moved into the house in $1929$, the same year the Indian National Congress declared complete independence from Britain as its ultimate goal.

• By $1947$, with the collapse of the British Raj, the planned imperial city was absorbed into the postcolonial Indian nation.

• Today, it serves as the official residence of the President of India (Rashtrapati Bhavan).

• It can be seen as evidence of the lasting effects of colonization; while the colonial government is gone, its image remains, shaping the political landscape of the postcolonial nation-state.

Sibling Architectures' Obelisk (Melbourne, Australia)

• An installation focused on the monument commemorating John Batman, located at the site of the former Melbourne Cemetery (now Queen Victoria Market).

• It overlaid the original monument with three inscriptions:

  1. States that Melbourne was unoccupied prior to $1835$.

  2. Includes an apology to Melbourne's Indigenous peoples, added in the mid-$1990s$.

  3. Asks passerbys, in English and the indigenous Woiwurrung language: