Sightlines and African Urbanism

Dwell speaks with Erika Gee about the upcoming "Sightlines" lecture series. One of the questions was:

courtesy of Dwell

"The talks range in location from South Africa to quite literally Timbuktu. Tell me about that Timbuktu lecture and what it hopes to say about architectural cross-pollination across the continent.
That lecture looks at West African architecture and how often times academics are quick to treat it as something apart from the rest of Africa and particularly North Africa. But curator Labelle Prussin looks at the Jewish influence in Timbuktu and tries to make connections between West Africa and North Africa. She sees an influence in architecture, art, and commerce, and makes the point that West Africa is really an area with a number of different styles.