African architecture is now receiving attention from academics all over the world, and

publications are now trickling in from various angles. Despite this, it is challenging to talk about

African architecture because the publications frequently clash with one another.

Old residence Museum, Calabar Nigeria

When examining the floor plan of a family home in Africa, one must inquire: Who resides there?

Is it a family that practices ancestor worship, a family that practices Islam, or a family that is

Christian? Does the shrine belong to the ancestors of the entire family? Is the house set up as a

single-family bungalow or an extended family compound in a posh neighborhood of the city?

One is forced to consider the material of the walls when examining the tectonics of a built object

in Africa, which refers to the construction techniques used to hold the structures of the house, the

styles of decorations on the façade and elevations (fronts), roof, openings, and columns together

in harmony. Are they made of clay, stones, reeds, coral shells, grass, tree branches, raffia palm

fronds, wood, or tree branches and sands? One must inquire about more recent structures as
follows: Are the walls made of cardboard, zinc, plywood, synthetic materials, engineered wood,

concrete, or another material? What about weather regulation and defense against the elements

like the sun and rain? Is the roof of the house flat, sloping to one side, high pitched, or low

pitched? What substance(s) does it contain? shingles, slate, zinc, clay, thatch, or grass? How are

humidity, heating, and cooling managed?

In addition, since many traditional African compounds have portals and since elevation is one of

a building's most crucial components, one is obligated to inquire about how the portals relate to

the elevations of the houses in the compound, such as: What styles and motifs articulate the

portal's surrounding elements, and how are the doors and windows decorated? Do they have clay

or other pigments painted on them? Do they use distinguishable symbols that community

members can recognize? These are issues that can be resolved with an in-depth knowledge of

Africa's geography. The way that people build varies across the continent depending on the

distribution of climatic zones, vegetation types, and the availability of building materials. When
traveling further inland, one finds semiarid wooded steppe lands that border the deserts—the

Sahara Desert in the north and the Kalahari Desert in the south—while the coastal tips of

northern and southern Africa are covered in Mediterranean vegetation. Large Sahel and savanna

grasslands and forests that extend to West Africa and parts of East Africa serve as a buffer for

both regions. From the West African Atlantic, mangrove forests, thick tropical rain forests, and

evergreen forests gradually give way to Sahel and savanna woodlands, which are followed by the

Sahara, the world's largest desert.

Understanding the geography of the

continent is crucial when examining its

architectural heritage because of the

distribution of cultural groups and political

experiences over time, from antiquity to the

present. A number of cultural structures

and edifices from the past and present

reflect this way of life in the northern

regions of the continent, which are made up of the nations of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya,

and Egypt. Although these countries have small Christian communities, the majority of people in

West Africa are Muslims, including in Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger,

and Chad. Similar to how religious and cultural affinities are reflected in architecture, so too are

responses to particular regional, vernacular, and climatic requirements. The religious affiliations

and cultural identities of people living in the same country significantly change as one moves

eastward toward the Atlantic coast from the coastal nations in northwest Africa. For instance, the

northern populations of Sierra Leon, Liberia, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, and
Cameroon are predominately Muslim, whereas the southern populations are predominately

Christian.

The middle regions, also known as the middle belts, appear to have an equal distribution of

Christians and Muslims. Large Catholic and other Christian denominations coexist peacefully

with sizable Muslim populations in the Central African Republic, Gabon, the Democratic

Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire), and Angola. With the exception of Ethiopia, a Christian

nation with a majority Coptic sect and a small Muslim population, many East African nations

have a Muslim majority and a sizable proportion of Christians among their citizens. A large

majority of people are Muslims in the Republic of Sudan, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda,

and Tanzania, while Christians make up a minority. The northern Sudan is primarily Muslim,

similar to West Africa, while the southern region is primarily Christian. The majority-Christian

nations of Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana, and the Republic of South

Africa are home to sizable Muslim populations. Again, the architecture in these parts of Africa

reflects the varying climatic and cultural conditions. The most significant influence on the

architecture of Africa has come from its indigenous cultures. The most crucial thing to remember

when discussing African architectural practices is that the indigenous, Western, and Islamic

aspects of African cultures are all broad concepts that differ from place to place and region to

region. However, these ideas provide a strong framework for investigating the architecture of the

continent across time and space in various parts of the continent. So, we can see from the study

in this Introduction that the original sources of African architecture have been summed up as

indigenous, Western, and Islamic in what is called the "triple heritage architectural concept." It

took into account the geography, anthropology, sociology, history, and political systems of
 Africa, particularly as reflected in the works of

scholars like Ali A. Mazrui, who first coined the

phrase "triple heritage" in his book titled The

Africans: A Triple Heritage. The theory was

developed after years of research examining the

works of architectural historians like Udo

Kultermann, Peter Garlake, Susan Denyer, and

Susan B. Aradeon (1986).

It goes without saying that such a broad proposal can be challenging for a continent the size of

Africa. There are areas where it is difficult to distinguish between indigenous and Western or

indigenous and Islamic architectural motifs when the triple heritage concept is examined from

cultural, functional, stylistic, and tectonic perspectives. In contrast, there are a few instances

where it is impossible to completely separate the motifs that distinguish Western and Islamic

architecture. This issue may be exacerbated by regionalist concerns and vernacular expressions

motivated by climatic requirements and available construction methods. Here, history and

archaeology can assist in resolving the confluence of these three significant building cultures that

gave the continent its architectural heritage. The goal of Conical stone tower ruins from a

convent in Zimbabwe. African architecture can be significantly influenced by regional religion

and other cultural differences, with these factors influencing decisions about elevation,

construction style, building materials, and decoration or ornamentation. The functions, styles,

and systems of the continent's architectural practices can, however, be determined more

accurately by comprehending the mechanisms by which architectural fusion occurred among the

three cultures.
WHAT DID NNAMDI ELLEH MEAN BY TRIPLE

HERITAGE

NAME: ADERINSOLA ADEBUKOLA ADEAGBO

EDMP21/22/H/0727

COURSE CODE: ARC 605