Negotium

Just beginning to work on an article for Discourse (3rd edition which will focus on the global financial crisis), and this sort of stems off the documentary I’m working on with Joe Addo. Here’s the abstract:

Negotium: Architecture of the Multicultural

Accra: A case-study

The article portrays the economic and cultural history of Accra, the capital city of Ghana, in a narrative that illustrates the nature and direction of its expanding and multi-nodal landscape. Historically, Accra the colonial city has been described as spatially delineated and culturally differentiated. The creation of Victoriasburg compartmentalized and restricted the growth of local indigenous communities from the European colonial administrative and economic headquarters in the mid 1890s. Following a major economic boom from 1910-19, that rendered competition among European and the African elite traders, two health scares– the bubonic plague and flu epidemic set in motion an intensive decentralization of the Victoriaburg in 1920. The relocation of European and African elite traders to the neighborhoods of Ridge and Adabraka respectively, is a history that can hardly be read from the fading lines and deteriorating structures of these houses now enveloped by an unrelenting mass of rural migrants. Migrant status today is a huge determinant in understanding the production of residential space in the city of Accra. In the two decades, following independence in 1956, government-led versus non-government residential and commercial space development are ultimately directly correlated to the migrant’s economic and cultural status. However the adoption of neoliberal policies by the Rawling’s administration in 1983, fostered a massive change in the urban fabric of Accra. Liberalization manifested itself in Structural Adjustments Programs (SAPS) that undoubtedly created an atmosphere that built the foundation for local and global forces that are shaping the city today.

Essential policies of SAPS that favor deregulation, privatization of national industries, economic competition, export and import control freedom and decentralization are reflected in a city whose streets are littered with abundant ‘tro-tro’s, whose roads marches towards its built forms and not the other way round and whose houses are built with imported cement, steel and glass.

In an economy that heavily leans on hard cash, sits on a historically unstable money market and fragile social security system, it is the house that proves to be the safest investment for Ghanaians on the local and global scene. And with a bottomless pit of housing shortage since independence, housing is a product guarantees inexhaustible good yield.

The house has been a plane unto which the modern Ghanaian’s hopes and dreams have been projected upon; its birth and completion intricately mapping socioeconomic negotiations of local and global. In investigating the effects of the credit-crunch on a cash-based economy, perhaps looking at Accra’s architecture– the ultimate destination of the cash-trail may provide a deeper understanding.

MAP(sketch) of the article:

i. Historical background of Accra 1890-1960

a. 1920decentralization sparked by colonial administration,

b. city expansion by government beginning 1960,

c. 1983 liberalization effects on housing industry

d. 1991 larger scale and faster momentum of liberalization

ii. Contemporary Accra: product of this history

iii. Space/time Map (image)

The image is an intro to two vastly different neighborhoods in Accra

a. Case study #1: Adabraka (1930 neighborhood privately financed by African bourgeoisie traders)

b. Case study #2: East Legon (1970-present—Accra’s most rapidly expanding housing development)

Why these two areas?

I choose to present these two areas because they possess a class of inhabitants that live in the ‘gray’ area between the old and new. In Adabraka they are those living in deteriorating gigantic homes of former glory and in East Legon they are those living in uncompleted massive houses that have fallen short of funding over a long period of time. Somewhere between these deteriorating and creating spatiotemporal scales, these people are uniquely positioned in understanding the socioeconomic growth of Accra.

August 5, 2009 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Accra, adabraka, architecture, east legon, ghana, history | Leave A Comment »