Africa at LSE

Africa is among the fastest urbanising areas in the world. In this post, LSE’s Ama de-Graft Aikins explores the challenges facing the multicultural global city that is Accra and ideas of how to overcome them. This is part of a recent public lecture series exploring healthy cities in collaboration with LSE Cities and LSE Health.

In 1877, when Accra was made capital of the Gold Coast, the population was less than 20,000 and the town was dominated by one ethnic group, the Gas. When Ghana gained independence from the British in 1957, eighty years later, the population was approximately 136,000 and the Gas had lost their majority status. The first set of plans in 1944, 1958 and 1961, provided for a spacious city with well-defined residential areas, road networks and public services, in keeping with urban planning of the period. However city planners did not anticipate a rapid population increase. Now, Accra is a multi-cultural global city with a population that has doubled over the most recent national census periods, from 1.7million in 2000 to 4 million in 2010.

Jamestown is one of the oldest neighbourhoods in Accra. Photo: Mawuli Kushitor

Early Ga settlements like La, Teshie and Mamprobi that functioned as markets for livestock and general goods, are now residential neighbourhoods which coexist with newer areas ranging from million-dollar gated communities (e.g. Trassaco Valley) to poverty-stricken slums (e.g. Old Fadama). The political dominance of the British in the development of the town (and broader Gold Coast colony) has given way to a multi-national collective of British, American, Dutch, Danish, German, Japanese and Chinese development partners who co-direct the affairs of Accra and Ghana through multi-donor support systems. Similarly the economic dominance of British companies like United Africa Company (UAC, now Unilever), has given way to a vast array of multi-national companies: in 2000, 665 companies from 80 countries had set up home in Accra. After the multi-national hotels arrived in the 1990s, the gated communities followed, and then telecommunications and entertainment industries established themselves. The fast food revolution, beginning with local hamburger joints in the 1970s and culminating in KFC’s inauguration on Accra’s Oxford Street in 2012, sealed Accra’s global status. Earlier this year, the New York Times declared Accra the fourth most desirable tourist destination for 2013, right behind Rio de Janeiro and ahead of 42 other world destinations.  Continue reading →