Erica Mann (1917-2007 Nairobi, Kenya)

Erica Mann, a young white woman, probably in her late thirties or early forties, is standing in a grassy landscape in the countryside near Nairobi, Kenya. Behind her are five black men carrying objects on their heads. The photo shows Mann in a confident posture, wearing robust trousers and a headscarf. It portrays a woman accustomed to working in the fields and under the sun. A woman eager to take on projects, share ideas, have conversations with indigenous people and encourage women in the field of men. Mann was a foreigner in Kenya, and yet, in this picture, her upright standing position makes her seem self-confident and comfortable in her surroundings, as if she had been there for a long time and is the person in charge. 

Before being forced to leave her home in Romania in the 1930s, Mann was trained at the École des Beaux Arts, Paris, where she already had to prove herself as the only woman in a class of three-hundred men. Together with her husband, she later fled Romania, and finally settled down in the countryside near Nairobi. 

After having brought up her three children on their farm among the Masai, Mann took a job at the Kenya Lands Department, where she worked on the Masterplan of Nairobi and, later, on the city of Mombasa. She was soon recognised as a talented and committed urban planner, and became the senior planning and development officer for many major projects in Kenya, in charge of researching and gathering evidence for strategic planning decisions.

Mann considered herself a socialist. Her interest lay in the science of human settlements, including regional, city, community planning and dwelling design, with a holistic approach to planning harmonious human settlements and traditional African house designs, repudiating any idea that they were ‘primitive.’ She not only designed, but also lectured internationally on the subject, becoming a representative of post-colonial Kenya. Her interests broadened out to sustainable development and human rights issues. She furthermore founded two magazines, Build Kenya and Plan East Africa. Even when, in 1963, Kenya became independent, she continued working for the government, unlike many of her friends, who left the country. Furthermore, she and her husband engaged actively in the community, and frequently hosted ‘open house’ afternoons for the so-called ‘intelligentsia’ of Kenya.

In 1972, Mann founded the Council for Human Ecology: Kenya. The same year, she also founded the Women in Kibwezi rural development project [1], which intended to protect the environment of Kenya and empower rural women by supporting them in building self-sufficiently, training them in apiculture, brickmaking and rabbit breeding and, furthermore, granting security of tenure and the right to property titles. Mann saw urban planning as ‘an ideal profession for a woman because it builds on her innate capacity for providing an orderly and aesthetic environment for herself, her family and the community in which she lives.’ [2]

Erica Mann acted as an international ambassador, presenting her vision of post-colonial Kenya. She was aiming to create something for the city by developing and building new parts of Nairobi. [3] To do so, she created a platform to enable a dialogue between the people: between the ‘intelligentsia,’ politicians and indigenous communities. Furthermore, through her projects Mann empowered rural women to stand on their own feet.

Image Credits: Kenny Mann.

1. The „Women in Kibwezi rural development project“ was judged as one of the 100 best practices in the world at the United Nations Habitat II conference in 1996.

2. Beautiful Tree, Severed Roots. Dir. Kenny Mann, 2014. Film.

3. In 2003, Mann was honoured with the title of Architect Laureate for Kenya.