This master’s thesis examines independent art spaces in Banjul, Dar es Salaam and Nairobi as
process-based and relational forms of cultural infrastructure emerging at the intersection of
art, everyday life and urban relations. The theoretical framework brings together Lefebvre’s
theory of the production of space, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s decolonial perspectives and Kim
Gurney’s research. The empirical part is based on participatory action research, eighteen
interviews and production work conducted in The Gambia, Tanzania and Kenya. The analysis
demonstrates that these spaces are not merely responses to the lack of formal cultural
infrastructure, but autonomous, hybrid and self-organised practices that enable creation,
learning, connection and the transformation of social relations. In the final section, the Kijana
platform is presented as a practical case through which the principles of horizontality, second
chances, performativity, elasticity and convergence are examined. The research also
highlights both the transformative potential of these principles and their limitations.
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