Description

Live presentation at xmnw – Abibitumi fie.

This project sought to practicalize research on classical and contemporary  Kmt ‘Land of Black people’ through the architecture of  ḫmnw: Abibitumi Ahemfie ‘Abibitumi Palace’—a family-based intergenerational residential and work space. This was done by incorporating etiological, cosmological, and ontological concepts into the structure including, but not limited to, creation stories from  ḫmnw,  iwnw,  mn nfr and  wꜣst as well as those of the Dogon, Bakôngo, Basongye, Bambara, Fɔn and Kasena-Nankana among others. These considerations were further reflected in terms of the building materials (earth blocks, stone floors and walls, and wood ceilings, floors and doors), the solar orientation of the structure, the infusion of significant numbers into the structure via geometric shapes, bomborisi painting, the exclusive reliance on  Rꜥ for energy, the exclusive reliance on rainwater and groundwater as water sources, carvings in  mdw nṯr, original adinkra metalwork n.k. We find that, just as in classical times, architecture is a means of making astronomical, solar, geometric, cosmological, orthographic and other knowledge manifest in reality (Gumbe 2020, Kambon and Asare 2019). In conclusion, we recommend that knowledge of classical and contemporary  Kmt ‘Land of Black people’ not remain locked up in lecture halls, but should once again become manifest in our structures, infrastructure, workplaces, residences, and our built environment as a whole to rebuild  Kmt as the ‘Land of Black people’ in substance so that  Mꜣꜥt will return to her seat while  isft is driven away.

References

Gumbe, N. (n.d.). Ukwenziwa Kwendalo: An Exploration of the Alignment between Afrikan Thought and Communal Space University of Ghana, Legon. Institute of African Studies.

Kambon, Ọ. and Yaw Mankatah  Asare. 2019. “Humanities and Sciences as Complementary Aspects of an Afrikan=Black Whole: Evidence from Archeoastronomy.” Legon Journal of the Humanities 30(2):215-42.