A history of infrastructures in Ga Mashie, Accra

By Jonathan Silver (Durham University)

Overview

The Ga people, the original inhabitants of James Town arrived from Chad creating a number of coastal towns including Ga Mashie although a date for this migration is not known its estimated that Ga settlements have existed along the coast for hundreds of years before European exploration and exploitation. The Portuguese were the first European power to establish a settlement in present day Accra, building Fort Vincente in the 1560s. The growth of the slave trade along the West Africa coastline meant that fortified settlements and deep harbors became a necessity for the slave trading nations of Europe and the British built a fortified James Fort in 1659 in which to link up with other settlements along the Gold Coast. At this time mixed European and Africa families lived in a cosmopolitan mix of peoples in James Town in run down thatched cottages overlooking the harbor. The end of the slave trade brought new economic opportunities for the area beyond slavery and the growth natural resource extraction such as cocoa and palm oil production brought more traders and administrators to James Town. By 1877 the British had moved their capital of the Gold Coast to Christiansbourg Castle, Accra (from Cape Coast) and James Town became the epicentre of trade and administration for the country with its deep harbor receiving many trade ships each year.

Colonial infrastructures

Colonial era infrastructure systems in James Town closely mirrored that of other urban areas across Africa. This history is a history of the colonial authorities ignoring the African population and itsinfrastructural needs as Myers (2006:294) explains about Lusaka; “for the most part urban authorities and European residents simply ignored developments in the African part of town”. Ghana would be no exception. Indeed with this exclusionary colonial mindset manifested in political under representation and a lack of essential urban services, justified through various discourses of subjegation and imperial supremacy James Town represents an important example of the colonial governance practices of urban areas in Africa in the late 19th century. This attitude is reflected in the words of the Colonial Governor in 1858; “the object of this Government was not to clean out dirty towns but to direct the people to that and other objects by controlling and modifying their own Government”(cited in Hess, 2000:40). This lack of consideration by colonial authorities for their urban subjects can be illustrated vividly by the example presented by Brand (1972:42) in which £62,000 was spent by the Governor of James Town on the British Empire Exhibition whilst only £1,400 was spent on anti plague measures (Brand, 1972:42).

Within a year of the British move from Cape Coast James Town became a focus for colonial administrators seeking to create better living conditions for the European settlers. The 1878 Gold Coast Towns Police and Health Ordinance creating a new legislative tool for the authorities with the objective of empowering the Governor to deal with unsanitary conditions and impose punishments including fines and court appearances on those deemed to be creating unsanitary conditions (Hess, 2000). This was followed by further legislation in 1894 which was perhaps spurred by the outbreak of bubonic plague and the burning of parts of James Town by the British1. Under the guise of the Town Council Ordinance which sought to further enforce sanitation and general improvement through the introduction of street lighting (paraffinlights), the construction of drains, waste disposal and building on the provision of safe water, first begunin 1885 with the building of a reservoir. Urban governance of James Town was further developed through the establishment of the Accra Municipal Council with committees set up to develop infrastructural systems across of range of urban issues including water supply, sanitation and lighting (Dixon,1968). James Town had been spatially organised with a de facto segregation with the run down thatched cottages of the Ga people based away from the brick buildings of the settlers near the harbor. This segregation was not just about interaction but was viewed as essential to prevent disease in the settler community through the development of its own urban infrastructural systems such as water. By the mid 1890s an increasingly worried colonial authority concerned about the sanitary conditions of James Town and the spread of disease (such as the bubonic plague) led to the planning and creation of a new town in Accra, Victoriaborg. Well away from the cramped and unsanitary conditions of James Town this new settlement would provide a safe and comfortable environment. This racially segregated neighbourhood would attract many of the traders, administrators and other settlers away from the hot and busy streets of James Town and so by the early 20th century James Town would once again be dominated by the Ga people. Although the Devonshire White Paper of 1923, drafted by the colonial secretary in Kenya, advocated for the ending of racial segregation in Britain’s African colonies James Town had long since ceased to act as the centre of British imperical trading activity on the Gold Coast.

Post independence

James Town would become the focus for much of the independence movement during the 1930s with the future president Dr Kwame Nkrumah taking his constituency seat in Old Accra by 1951 and many of the mobilisations by war veterans seeking autonomy taking place around the harbor. The British post  development of a masterplan for Accra by architect Maxwell Fry envisaged a vast governmental complex supporting the ever increasing number of traders to Ghana. Along the coast from James Town to Osu the plan envisaged a city with separated zones of activity for industry, the urban poor and the middle class all being confined to particular spaces. Although many of these plans were rejected in the post independence era the building of the giant courts complex on High Street saw the demolishing of some of the western parts of James Town. Once Ghana had become independent in 1957 Nkrumah set about developing his own vision of Accra with a focus on creating an (Afro) united and modern(ist) culture that would bind together Africa’s first independent country and create a prosperous future for all. Although the colonial authorities developed an electricity supply for the settler communities as early as 1916 it was not until Nkrumah’s programme of modernisation in the early 1960s that James Town was provided with a networked electricity infrastructure. Nkrumah’s vision for the country included the development of a central business district in Accra and James Town was repeatedly targeted for slum clearance to make way for this vision;

“In the development of the central business area under the Nkrumah administration, quite different priorities and political exigencies are evident. The administration repeatedly instigated slum clearance in James Town and Ussher Town, but relocation and demolition efforts, according to an article published in the Daily Graphic, 16 May 1957, were consistently resisted by Ga leaders and members of the opposition” (Hess, 2000:54).

The end of the Nkrumah regime brought about through a military coup in 1966 brought about the end of grand visions for Accra and the country and the city began to buckle under the accelerating urbanization that the country was experiencing and the ever increasing debt burden that its leaders were running up. After the promises of the post independence government of a modern future for Accra attention to urban infrastructures and architecture declined markably. The 1980s witnessed the introduction of structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) into the Ghanian economy, brought about through IMF and World Bank macro economic planning and further sapping investment in urban infrastructure networks.