This article argues that the "soft" power of Western education in Ghana is undergirded by historical hard power, exercised through and reinforced by the architecture of schools.

This article - based on an African Studies Association Graduate Student Paper award-winning paper - establishes and investigates connections between the physical & sociopolitical architecture of school buildings and social class/ status in Ghana.

“Invented Modernism: Getting to Grips with Modernity in Three African State Buildings” by Manful, Batsani-Ncube & Gallagher, was recognised as one of the top read articles in the first year of publication by Wiley.

As scholars, practitioners and visitors from around the world turn to architecture on the African continent, they must be careful not to treat it as a blank slate in the way previous generations did. Africans have been creating, studying, teaching, and documenting architecture in Africa since time immemorial. Their work matters.