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KERSTIN PINTHER

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THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF ARCHITECTURE - From Cameroon to Paris: Mousgoum Architecture in and out of Africa. By Steven Nelson. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2007. Pp. xiv+247. $50 (
                    isbn

THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF ARCHITECTURE  From Cameroon to Paris: Mousgoum Architecture in and out of Africa. By  Steven Nelson. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2007. Pp. xiv+247. $50 (isbn 978-0-226-57183-6).

Open Access LMU ( Ludwig-Maximilians-Univ. München)

The Journal of African Historyhttp://journals.cambridge.org/AFHAdditional services for The Journal of African History:Email alerts: Click hereSubscriptions: Click hereCommercial reprints: Click hereTerms of use : Click hereTHE ANTHROPOLOGY OF ARCHITECTURE From Cameroon to Paris: Mousgoum Architecture in and out of Africa. By Steven Nelson. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2007. Pp. xiv+247. $50 (isbn 978­0­226­57183­6).KERSTIN PINTHERThe Journal of African History / Volume 49 / Issue 01 / March 2008, pp 147 ­ 149DOI: 10.1017/S0021853708003496, Published online: 23 April 2008Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0021853708003496How to cite this article:KERSTIN PINTHER (2008). Review of Steven Nelson 'From Cameroon to Paris: Mousgoum Architecture in and out of Africa' The Journal of African History, 49, pp 147­149 doi:10.1017/S0021853708003496Request Permissions : Click hereDownloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/AFH, IP address: 129.187.254.47 on 17 Jul 2013THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF ARCHITECTUREdoi:10.1017/S0021853708003496From Cameroon to Paris: Mousgoum Architecture in and out of Africa. By STEVENNELSON. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2007. Pp. xiv+247.$50 (ISBN 978-0-226-57183-6).KEY WORDS : Cameroon, Chad, architecture, arts.Without having read a single line, readers will get an idea of the wealth ofmaterial and the innovative approach of this book: numerous illustrations refer to1 Claire Robertson and Martin Klein (eds.), Women and Slavery in Africa (Madison,1983).REVIEWS 147the overall topic of this work by Steven Nelson, Assistant Professor of African andAfrican American Art History at the University of California, Los Angeles. Morethan 100, mainly black-and-white, images – including (historical) photographs,sketches and drawings, a film still from the Hollywood movie Road to Zanzibar(1941), maps, postcards of French world fairs, colonial exhibitions and posters ofCameroon Airlines – all attest to the presence of the so-called teleuk (pl. tele-ukakay) in various contexts. In his insightful study, the author explores the manyhistories and the interrelated discourses of the domed house, originally fashionedentirely from mud and grass by specialized masons of the Mousgoum peoples ofChad and Cameroon. Based upon many months of fieldwork in Cameroon (mainlyin Pouss) and Chad, and a shorter visit to Japan, as well as on the interpretation of aremarkable, huge collection of different archival sources and materials, Nelson’sstudy not only digs deep into the history of migration and the imagination of theTeleukakay in the course of almost one century. His work also can be read as a casestudy of the ways in which architecture functions as a template for the represen-tation of self and non-self.With this appealing new way of looking at the built environment (only com-parable to the well-known study on the global bungalow and its various local im-plications conducted by Anthony King in the 1980s), Nelson makes a substantialcontribution to the long neglected field of architectural anthropology, which hasonly slowly been gaining wider attention again within research addressing thequestions of space and material culture. Apart from the outstanding work bySuzanne Preston Blier on the Anatomy of Architecture (1987) among theBatammaliban, there are only few recent works on architecture in the field ofAfrican studies: Dominique Malaquais’s Architecture, pouvoir et dissidence auCameroun (2002), for example, emphasizes the fact that architecture is foremost apolitical phenomenon and argues for a subaltern approach to Bamile´ke´s’ royalarchitecture. Ikem Stanley Okoye and the author of the book under review sharenot only their strong interest in exploring the ideological (mis-)recognitions evokedand produced by architecture, but also their interest in the constitutive role ofimages in the building process.From Cameroon to Paris, based on the author’s Harvard doctoral thesis, consistsof an introduction, four core thematic chapters and an afterword. Parts of Chapters3 and 4 were published elsewhere in an earlier version. Chapter 1 provides thebackdrop for the following discussion of the radical changes in meaning the teleukexperienced, from its near disappearance in the 1930s up to its recent resurgence,by outlining the historic Mousgoum architecture and its interrelations with thesocial and economic structure and certain aesthetic devices of the Mousgoumpeoples. Chapter two explores the way the teleuk is perceived and represented inthe travelogues of Heinrich Barth, Olive McLeod and Andre´ Gide. In order todepict the contradictory, yet intermingling, projections and ambiguities at work inWestern notions of the teleuk, Nelson investigates each travel account at length,taking into consideration the author’s personal history. Barth, for example, con-sidered the dome to be of strange beauty and perfection, but (in keeping with well-known stereotypes) finally regarded it ‘as an architectonic repository containingtraces of a more civilized time’ (p. 61). Under the title A Pineapple in Paris, thethird chapter discusses how the teleuk, adapted and appropriated by a Frencharchitect, Le´on Fichet, for the French Equatorial Africa complex, became theepitome of West African architecture during the International Colonial Exhibition(1931); in the end, however, this hybrid architecture proved to be nothingmore than a reproduction of the French self. Chapter 4 takes the reader backto Cameroon, where – influenced by the local population, tourists, the French as-sociation Patrimoine sans Frontie`res and official representatives of the Cameroon148 JOURNAL OF AFRICAN HISTORYgovernment – the teleukakay have experienced a cultural revival since the 1990s.By highlighting the Mousgoum’s adoption of Gide’s famous description of theteleuk as a ‘classical ’ built form, Nelson again successfully demonstrates howthe exchange between different notions and reinterpretations of the teleuk func-tions in the interaction between Africa and the West.In essence, this book provides an important impulse for further studies in thefield of anthropology of architecture. Although the strength of the book lies inits multi-sited approach at the intersection of various meanings of the teleuk, asopposed to the studies, as prevalent up until today, of the built environment ofone single ethnic group, it is all the more regrettable that, in spite of numerousimportant theoretical and stimulating references to the theory of art and architec-ture, Nelson missed the opportunity to provide a more general theoretical frame-work – such as, for example, in Kopytoff’s (1986) cultural biography of things orSteven Cairn’s (2004) thoughts on migrancy and architecture.KERSTIN PINTHERUniversity of MunichREVIEWS 149

From Cameroon to Paris: Mousgoum architecture in and out of Africa

Universität München: Elektronischen Publikationen

The Journal of African History
http://journals.cambridge.org/AFH
Additional services for The Journal of African History:
Email alerts: Click here
Subscriptions: Click here
Commercial reprints: Click here
Terms of use : Click here
THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF ARCHITECTURE From 
Cameroon to Paris: Mousgoum Architecture in and out of 
Africa. By Steven Nelson. Chicago and London: University 
of Chicago Press, 2007. Pp. xiv+247. $50 (isbn 
978­0­226­57183­6).
KERSTIN PINTHER
The Journal of African History / Volume 49 / Issue 01 / March 2008, pp 147 ­ 149
DOI: 10.1017/S0021853708003496, Published online: 23 April 2008
Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0021853708003496
How to cite this article:
KERSTIN PINTHER (2008). Review of Steven Nelson 'From Cameroon to Paris: Mousgoum 
Architecture in and out of Africa' The Journal of African History, 49, pp 147­149 doi:10.1017/
S0021853708003496
Request Permissions : Click here
Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/AFH, IP address: 129.187.254.47 on 17 Jul 2013
THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF ARCHITECTURE
doi:10.1017/S0021853708003496
From Cameroon to Paris: Mousgoum Architecture in and out of Africa. By STEVEN
NELSON. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2007. Pp. xiv+247.
$50 (ISBN 978-0-226-57183-6).
KEY WORDS : Cameroon, Chad, architecture, arts.
Without having read a single line, readers will get an idea of the wealth of
material and the innovative approach of this book: numerous illustrations refer to
1 Claire Robertson and Martin Klein (eds.), Women and Slavery in Africa (Madison,
1983).
REVIEWS 147
the overall topic of this work by Steven Nelson, Assistant Professor of African and
African American Art History at the University of California, Los Angeles. More
than 100, mainly black-and-white, images – including (historical) photographs,
sketches and drawings, a film still from the Hollywood movie Road to Zanzibar
(1941), maps, postcards of French world fairs, colonial exhibitions and posters of
Cameroon Airlines – all attest to the presence of the so-called teleuk (pl. tele-
ukakay) in various contexts. In his insightful study, the author explores the many
histories and the interrelated discourses of the domed house, originally fashioned
entirely from mud and grass by specialized masons of the Mousgoum peoples of
Chad and Cameroon. Based upon many months of fieldwork in Cameroon (mainly
in Pouss) and Chad, and a shorter visit to Japan, as well as on the interpretation of a
remarkable, huge collection of different archival sources and materials, Nelson’s
study not only digs deep into the history of migration and the imagination of the
Teleukakay in the course of almost one century. His work also can be read as a case
study of the ways in which architecture functions as a template for the represen-
tation of self and non-self.
With this appealing new way of looking at the built environment (only com-
parable to the well-known study on the global bungalow and its various local im-
plications conducted by Anthony King in the 1980s), Nelson makes a substantial
contribution to the long neglected field of architectural anthropology, which has
only slowly been gaining wider attention again within research addressing the
questions of space and material culture. Apart from the outstanding work by
Suzanne Preston Blier on the Anatomy of Architecture (1987) among the
Batammaliban, there are only few recent works on architecture in the field of
African studies: Dominique Malaquais’s Architecture, pouvoir et dissidence au
Cameroun (2002), for example, emphasizes the fact that architecture is foremost a
political phenomenon and argues for a subaltern approach to Bamilékés’ royal
architecture. Ikem Stanley Okoye and the author of the book under review share
not only their strong interest in exploring the ideological (mis-)recognitions evoked
and produced by architecture, but also their interest in the constitutive role of
images in the building process.
From Cameroon to Paris, based on the author’s Harvard doctoral thesis, consists
of an introduction, four core thematic chapters and an afterword. Parts of Chapters
3 and 4 were published elsewhere in an earlier version. Chapter 1 provides the
backdrop for the following discussion of the radical changes in meaning the teleuk
experienced, from its near disappearance in the 1930s up to its recent resurgence,
by outlining the historic Mousgoum architecture and its interrelations with the
social and economic structure and certain aesthetic devices of the Mousgoum
peoples. Chapter two explores the way the teleuk is perceived and represented in
the travelogues of Heinrich Barth, Olive McLeod and André Gide. In order to
depict the contradictory, yet intermingling, projections and ambiguities at work in
Western notions of the teleuk, Nelson investigates each travel account at length,
taking into consideration the author’s personal history. Barth, for example, con-
sidered the dome to be of strange beauty and perfection, but (in keeping with well-
known stereotypes) finally regarded it ‘as an architectonic repository containing
traces of a more civilized time’ (p. 61). Under the title A Pineapple in Paris, the
third chapter discusses how the teleuk, adapted and appropriated by a French
architect, Léon Fichet, for the French Equatorial Africa complex, became the
epitome of West African architecture during the International Colonial Exhibition
(1931); in the end, however, this hybrid architecture proved to be nothing
more than a reproduction of the French self. Chapter 4 takes the reader back
to Cameroon, where – influenced by the local population, tourists, the French as-
sociation Patrimoine sans Frontières and official representatives of the Cameroon
148 JOURNAL OF AFRICAN HISTORY
government – the teleukakay have experienced a cultural revival since the 1990s.
By highlighting the Mousgoum’s adoption of Gide’s famous description of the
teleuk as a ‘classical ’ built form, Nelson again successfully demonstrates how
the exchange between different notions and reinterpretations of the teleuk func-
tions in the interaction between Africa and the West.
In essence, this book provides an important impulse for further studies in the
field of anthropology of architecture. Although the strength of the book lies in
its multi-sited approach at the intersection of various meanings of the teleuk, as
opposed to the studies, as prevalent up until today, of the built environment of
one single ethnic group, it is all the more regrettable that, in spite of numerous
important theoretical and stimulating references to the theory of art and architec-
ture, Nelson missed the opportunity to provide a more general theoretical frame-
work – such as, for example, in Kopytoff’s (1986) cultural biography of things or
Steven Cairn’s (2004) thoughts on migrancy and architecture.
KERSTIN PINTHERUniversity of Munich
REVIEWS 149


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From Cameroon to Paris: Mousgoum architecture in and out of Africa

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