Architects of Liberation:Modernism in Western Africa

Now on view at MoMA Exhibitions, “Architects of Liberation: Modernism in Western Africa” traces how architects and planners in the mid-to-late 20th century used modern design to negotiate independence, public life, and new national identities. Through drawings, photographs, and archival material, it follows buildings as civic tools as much as aesthetic statements. Shown in New York at a moment when the city is reexamining whose histories shape its museums, the exhibition argues that modernism’s story is incomplete without West Africa’s experiments and contradictions.