Reframing the African Landscape

On 25–26 September 2025, the ILASA / IFLA Africa Symposium convened at the CSIR International Convention Centre in Pretoria as a hybrid event (in-person and virtual), bringing together landscape architects, educators, policymakers, and allied professionals from across Africa, and further afield, under the conference theme Reframing the African Landscape. Over the two days, attendees engaged in keynote talks, panel dialogues, interactive sessions, and a guided field tour of local sites—all designed to challenge prevailing paradigms in theory and practice, uplift indigenous knowledge systems, and chart more contextually grounded pathways for African landscape design and governance.  The student competition tied to the symposium invited emerging professionals to propose “Innovative Landscapes for Africa’s Future,” reinforcing the call to reposition how landscapes are envisioned and mobilised across the continent.  Many of the winning entries came from Uganda Martyrs University, tipping IFLA Africa off to a new landscape architecture programme on the continent!

The keynote speakers were inspiring and brilliant in their presentations.  Julia Watson of Lo-TEK fame kicked off proceedings on a high note, setting a high standard for what was to come.  Fortunately, others did not disappoint: Arthur Adeya (Konkuey Design Initiative – KDI), Tamsin Faragher from the City of Cape Town and IFLA’s Climate Change Director, and Anton Earle of ICLEI were equally challenging.  Several panel discussions and paper presentations kept things moving, with plenty of opportunities for exchange and debate.

Personally, I was thrilled to see Marike Franklin honoured with the IFLA Africa Service Award for all her hard work on the ALN and other related tasks.  It is a pleasure to collaborate with her!  Similarly, seeing Bernard Oberholzer walk away with the InSite IFLA Africa Award was a truly happy moment. Bernie’s long and productive career has been humbly in the service of landscape and landscape architecture, and seeing him honoured with the trophy donated by InSite was a conference highlight. As IFLA Africa president, I certainly do not regret giving Bernie the green light to go ahead with the African Journal of Landscape Architecture (AJLA) in Oslo in 2019!

One of the landmark outcomes of the Council meeting held on the last day, was the commitment to operationalising the Professional Standards resolution, aimed at bringing IFLA Recognition into actual practice within Africa. The Professional Standards Working Group of IFLA has been actively advancing mechanisms for defining the profession, standardising curricula, and promoting mutual recognition among national associations.  The Pretoria meeting underscored how African associations can adopt and adapt these frameworks—from accreditation of educational programmes to pathways for professional registration—in order to strengthen credentialling, mobility, and credibility of landscape architects across national boundaries.  In support of this, IFLA’s recent Memorandum of Understanding with the South African Council for the Landscape Architectural Profession (SACLAP) showcases how regional alignment with IFLA’s accreditation and recognition system is beginning to take institutional form, under the added guidance of the Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards (CLARB), with whom IFLA Africa also has an MoU.

Of course, for me, this Regional Council meeting was a little bitter-sweet. Stepping off the regional ExCo after 13 years of continuous involvement is tough.  I’ll miss the regular updates on all the hard work IFLA Africa is doing but look forward to continuing with the ALN and any other tasks that may be requested of me and maybe find some time to give a boost to our local Moroccan association (AAPM)?

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