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Migrations, Identities and Transculturation in the Coastal Cities of Yorubaland in the Second Half of the Second Millenary: Another Approach of African History through Architecture

Brigitte Kowalski Oshineye, Ecole du Louvre – Paris 1er – France
Brigitte.Kowalski@wanadoo.fr

The paper is based on information and conclusions of a previous study of Afro-Brazilian architecture on the Slave Coast, from Aneho (Togo republic) to Lagos (Nigeria) including Ouidah and Porto Novo in Benin republic, and refers particularly to the coastal cities of Yorubaland, so to say, Lagos, Abeokutta and Badagry, Porto Novo in the Gun area. The architecture of these cities, from the second half of the XIXth century to the second half of the XXth century, is generally assimilated to the colonial period, but its study reveals that it was more the fact of a new settlement of population composed by freed slaves from America than European. Visiting and noting decorations and plans, it appeared very clearly a lot of differences between the buildings, which can be explained by the origin of the freed slaves settled in the area. Completed by family inquiries, and readings, narratives of travellers, history essays, it appears that this new architecture is a witness of the complex history of the second half of thesecond millenary and give a lot of information on the slave trade, its organisation, movements of population inside Africa for the control of this trade, on the return of freed slaves, their origin, their culture, and on the colonial period and the transformation of the African society during this period. Based on concrete examples in Lagos, Abeokuta, Badagry and Porto Novo, the paper develops the information given by architecture and its contribution to African History and the consequences of slave trade in this part of Africa.