Iain Jackson

There is a certain persistence in Accra’s urban development, and this slow, gradual expansion radiating from the harbour, has ensured that a residue of this rich and contested past continues to endure through the built environment. This catalogue and exhibition attempts to examine this history, materialisation, and politics through the architecture and planning of the city, using a varied set of source material dating from the mid-19th Century to the mid-20th Century. Focusing almost exclusively on British colonial papers, maps, mercantile records, medical reports, and associated ephemera, the work tells a particular, and occasionally problematic story about Accra’s growth into a major regional conurbation in West Africa, and the capital city of Ghana. The source material is, by its very nature, presenting a very particular view point, most of which was captured at a moment when the British Empire was at its peak in terms of land mass and socio-political influence. Whilst revealing the ambition and varied exploits of the imperial mission, this material also displays a vulnerability and lack of certainty – a timid and somewhat hesitant approach to development, that until the 20th Century barely ventured beyond the coast. The work reveals an interesting cleft between the Government officials and the mercantile community, one that was partially bridged by characters such as Joseph Chamberlain and Gordon Guggissberg, and their ambitions to develop key infrastructure; railways, docklands, ‘tropical medicine’ and schools. Whilst these grand projects clearly transformed the geography of the terrain, tropical medicine proved to have an equally significant bearing. It prompted the desire for European officials to live in ‘segregated’ housing from the African population, a move that was questioned and resented not only by the African community, but also various Governors and European merchants. This approach was to have major ramifications for the development of the town, resulting in vast swathes of prime land being set aside as cordon sanitaire. For the traders and merchants, this tactic was largely ignored, and many continued to live in the vibrant “native” trading quarters, such as James Town, developing large estates, warehouses, and eventually high end department stores. These decisions continue to manifest themselves in today’s Accra, and we can observe the more intimate density of James Town compared to the more salubrious planning at the Ridge.
Whilst the Government agenda and approach has, in part, been previously examined, this work has tried to devote more attention to the mercantile efforts, examining the ‘every day’ and ‘functional’ premises of the traders, as well as their attempts to steer policy. Jim Richards’ examination of the ‘functional tradition’ from the 1950s is particularly of note here, and whilst many of Accra’s mercantile and harbour warehouses are not always sophisticated or celebrated structures, together they form a large and important group of buildings from a particular period, offering a unique collection from this turbulent period. Furthermore, they are of a particular type, encompassing luxury villa, shop front, warehouse, agriculture yard, and factory – often all within one compound. These business vortexes were complex organisations handling imports and exports as well as managing agencies and subsidiary companies. They also traded in ‘entertainment’ and were often the sites for open-air film projections in compounds decorated with a more flamboyant architecture.

Having uncovered old photographs, maps, drawings and postcards from various archives, we have set out to trace these buildings in today’s Accra. Many survive in various states of [dis]repair and there is a certain joy and seductive quality to the ‘before and after’ images. But hopefully these graphical traces can be used in a more critical manner to help us understand how the city developed, and the reasons that prompted decisions to be made. The built fabric acts as a repository, and like all documents or texts, it continues to change in terms of physical remnants and tangible qualities. Accra presents some extreme cases with only the delicate fragments of a shell remaining, for others it is too late and the entire site has been flattened (such as Sea View Hotel). Equally, buildings also stimulate or provoke different meanings, receptions and interpretations over time. The obelisk in Salaga Market, for example, no longer delivers the same message it did after the 1900 Anglo-Asanti conflict, and the monument has now itself become entombed within a market shelter. Even more recent attempts at nation-building through the monumental parade grounds of Independent Ghana cannot muster the same nationalist pride they did a mere 60 years ago. Meaning and significance are fluid terms that are constantly being challenged and re-created, and whilst James Town was largely dominated by the large mercantile traders, it should not be thought of merely as a ‘colonial construct’, or somehow not Ghanaian through this association. It presents a far more complex, uncertain, and contrary set of phenomena to untangle. Through a careful examination of the built environment we can, perhaps, begin to understand this place and also to cherish and appropriately re-use, reimagine, and thus re-appropriate the structures that remain with us today.

At a recent lecture given in Kumasi, I was accused of wanting to ‘preserve everything’ and to create a static relic of a museumified city. This could not be further from the truth. Our cities are alive, and they need to grow, change and shift to suit new requirements, land value, population levels, and so on. But what we must do in this frantic drive for modernisation and improvement, is to carefully assess what we have around us, and not to discount the value that resides in an old building from an artefact point of view, but also, and perhaps more importantly because of the the intangible embodied stories, memories, crafts, and events they also shelter.
A careful and sensitive use of heritage need not restrict development – indeed, it can enhance and increase the value of new projects, as well as ensuring that the embodied energy of the built fabric is not lost. The array of markets, warehouses, villas and compounds is a gift for creative industries, events, recitals, as well as small scale production, manufacturing and enterprise, and I hope this exhibition can provoke and stimulate further interest, research and ambition in this historic core of the city.