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So, most of us know that cities like Salvador de Bahia in Brazil, Veracruz in Mexico, New Orleans in the U.S. and Havana, Cuba have a strong African presence, especially in culture (music, traditions etc) and expressed phenotype. Nonetheless, when we discuss urban shape and form, those cities are pretty much known for their preserved colonial architectures.
Is there any cities or neighborhoods in the Americas with a physical built that would resemble African cities/places? As far as I know, I don't think there is. The closest I can think of are cities in Mexico like Guadalajara, where some buildings might resemble southern Spain (Andalusia) or North Africa (Morocco). This being due to the large numbers of Moors that migrated from Spain to Mexico during the first waves of colonization.
Please refrain from posting pictures of shantytowns in, say, Rio de Janeiro to compare to one in Africa. We all know both continents have poverty, and shantytowns look pretty similar across the world.
Just came across this great article (with a great photo-gallery): Saudi Aramco World : Mexico’s Colors of Three Cultures that goes into the city of Puebla's Mudejar architectural heritage. Mudejar being an architectural style of the Moors in Southern Spain and North Africa.
Garifuna villages on the Caribbean coast of Central America were traditionally built in west African style. That style is probably rare now a days, but there might still be a few villages like that in Honduras.
Just came across this great article (with a great photo-gallery): Saudi Aramco World : Mexico’s Colors of Three Cultures that goes into the city of Puebla's Mudejar architectural heritage. Mudejar being an architectural style of the Moors in Southern Spain and North Africa.
Anything from Northern Africa doesn't count because that arrived in Spain during the thousands of years the Muslims had control of the country. At the time of the discovery of America, Spain was basically finishing reconquering the southern part of the Spanish peninsula from the Muslims, and whatever 'North African' influence in Latin American architecture in reality is Spanish. It was introduced by the Spanish because that influence was prevalent over there, especially in Andalusia.
This is not only true in the architectural and cultural influence, but also in genetics. Almost all of the North African genetic markers in Latin Americans arrived with Spaniards that were mixed with the Moors, especially in those countries that received much of their Spanish immigration from Andalusia and/or the Canaries (these last ones were also mixed with the Guanches, who were the native population of the Canaries.)
As for the topic, I don't think there's much African influence in architecture or urban design in the Western Hemisphere. Most of the African imprint is genetics (the vast majority of the African presence is in this form). Then in certain cultural aspects (food, music, religion) exist a noticeable African influence. Lastly, language is the other area where African influence is somewhat noticeable (a few African words are part of the various Spanish dialects, but it pales in comparison with the amount of Amerindian words that have been incorporated, even in the Afro-Hispanic countries bordering the Caribbean Sea.)
Other than that, not much.
One aspect that many people are completely oblivious to is that even though the colonial buildings, especially the oldest ones, were built in purely Spanish and European styles, in some cases blending Spanish architectural styles with certain aspects of Amerindian architecture (plenty of Catholic churches in Mexico and Central America have this mixture of Spanish/Amerindian styles); the reality is that most of those stones were put together by blacks and Amerindians. So in a way those historic monuments are very obviously a testament to the European presence, but also a silent testament to the presence of other people that we usually don't think about when we see this:
The shotgun houses of the US South are supposedly from African influence. The history/origins of it are kind of unclear but many believe the shotgun house was influenced by African building styles and made it to the US through Haiti. I think they still exist in Haiti in some form too.
Anything from Northern Africa doesn't count because that arrived in Spain during the thousands of years the Muslims had control of the country. At the time of the discovery of America, Spain was basically finishing reconquering the southern part of the Spanish peninsula from the Muslims, and whatever 'North African' influence in Latin American architecture in reality is Spanish. It was introduced by the Spanish because that influence was prevalent over there, especially in Andalusia.
This is not only true in the architectural and cultural influence, but also in genetics. Almost all of the North African genetic markers in Latin Americans arrived with Spaniards that were mixed with the Moors, especially in those countries that received much of their Spanish immigration from Andalusia and/or the Canaries (these last ones were also mixed with the Guanches, who were the native population of the Canaries.)
But there were influences and arrivals of people from Sub Saharan Africa & Sub Saharan African descent that had presence in Spain since ancient times & contributed to Spain in all aspects, including culture & architect.
So, most of us know that cities like Salvador de Bahia in Brazil, Veracruz in Mexico, New Orleans in the U.S. and Havana, Cuba have a strong African presence, especially in culture (music, traditions etc) and expressed phenotype. Nonetheless, when we discuss urban shape and form, those cities are pretty much known for their preserved colonial architectures.
Is there any cities or neighborhoods in the Americas with a physical built that would resemble African cities/places? As far as I know, I don't think there is. The closest I can think of are cities in Mexico like Guadalajara, where some buildings might resemble southern Spain (Andalusia) or North Africa (Morocco). This being due to the large numbers of Moors that migrated from Spain to Mexico during the first waves of colonization.
Please refrain from posting pictures of shantytowns in, say, Rio de Janeiro to compare to one in Africa. We all know both continents have poverty, and shantytowns look pretty similar across the world.
At the time of the Spanish Encounter with New World, Spanish culture represented the fusion of Sephardic Jewish, Moorish, & Celtic-Iberian elements. The Reconquest of Spain, known as the Spanish Inquisition, with it's final and definitive expulsion of Jews and Moors from Spain in 1492, occurred only about a month before Columbus began his first voyage; one destination of the Jewish & Moorish flight from Spain was the New World. The first settlement of the Spanish in the Americas was La Navidad on the northwestern shore of Hispaniola; destroyed by the Native Americans, today the archaeological site is a part of Haiti. The later Spanish colony further east was called Santo Domingo & was first settled by peasants from Extremadura & AndalucÃa & Jews & Moors who fled Spain during the Spanish Inquisition; evidence of Jewish & Moorish influence in Hispaniola appears in architecture, dialect, & the oldest musical styles & genres. In the late 1600s, an important wave of immigrants arrived from the Canary Islands.
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