Twenty minutes walking from the palace, there was the Kinaxixi Market (sometimes spelled Kinaxixe or Quinaxixe) by Portugal-born architect Vasco Vieira da Costa (1911-1982). The market was a quintessential symbol of the so-called Tropical Modernism or, as I prefer, Colonial Modernist. Kinaxixi was designed between 1951 and 1952. In 1958, it was open to the public, becoming a prime place to purchase fresh produce. As noted by scholars Cristina Salvador and Cristina Udelsmann Rodrigues, Kinaxixi was an elitist market, especially if compared with larger ones such as the São Paulo market. Angola’s independence from Portugal in 1975 and the following civil war significantly affected the market as it compromised the supply of fresh fruits and vegetables, leading to Kinaxixi’s closure. Vieira da Costa’s building eventually reopened in the early 1990s, but this time around it was a place to sell and trade clothing and domestic appliances. Less than a decade later Kinaxixi Market ceased to operate, being finally demolished in 2008. Its demolition did not come without protests: the Ordem dos Arquitectos Angolanos attempted to save the building through a vigorous campaign that included applying for the building to be considered a UNESCO heritage site, petitions, and ultimately voicing their concerns in the local media.
While many, including the Ordem dos Arquitectos Angolanos, argued that such modernist buildings represent ‘the best’ of Angolan architecture--it is worth noting that ‘Tropical Modernism’ is a trending topic—these were in their great majority by a foreigner, and as in the Kinaxixi’s market case, also for foreigners. Most vendors working at Kinaxixi were indeed white Europeans. Moreover, before moving to Angola, Vieira da Costa worked with the father of modernist architecture Le Corbusier. The Kinaxixi Market possesses distinct elements of Corbusian aesthetics such as the various ramps, the pilotis, and the brise solei. The concrete building’s interior patio allows for air circulation, a very much needed aspect in tropical climates.
The challenge of modernist architecture in Portuguese speaking Africa is that such style is inherently tied to colonialism. The Kinaxixi Market was part of a proposed colonial future for Angola. While dictator António de Oliveira Salazar’s conservatism was evident in Portuguese architecture of the time, modernism was used in Angola to promote the idea of a ‘fair’ colonizer, which was devoted to the colony’s modernization and its people’s well-being through urban development. Therefore, there is a clash between the awareness of the aesthetic importance of such buildings, which were once as modern as modern could be and a desire to erase the colonial past. It is telling that there has been an increase in comparative scholarship linking Brazilian modernism to Luso-African Modernism, thus generating a comradeship of former colonies instead of stigmatizing these constructions