Women Writers On Accra
By Kuukuwa Manful
Accra, Ghana’s capital city is large, vibrant and multilayered. Several distinct suburbs, neighbourhoods and enclaves such as Jamestown in Accra Central (the historic and commercial core of the city) as well as quiet streets of Cantonments (a segregated European quarter in Ghana’s colonial past) come together with state-constructed housing enclaves such as Adenta, and to give Accra so many of its notable qualities. What is considered as “Accra” started out as a small area off the Gulf of Guinea, but today has expanded to include Legon, Madina and arguably even Kasoa and Oyarifa.
It’s no wonder that Accra has fascinated many writers and often features in popular culture from Ghana. This article looks at some women who write about. or feature Accra in their creative work and research. It includes work from academics, journalists, poets, musicians and novelists.
Accra enters the imagination as a big bright city, especially contrasted with the small town of Ho in Peace Adzo Medie’s “His Only Wife”. The novel is about Afi Tekple, a young seamstress from who marries a very wealthy Eliken Ganyo who then installs her in a plush apartment in Accra. Through Afi’s eyes we see Accra through a lens of class, economic opportunity with high-rise building and modern architecture.
I (Kuukuwa Manful) write about architecture in Accra through an analysis of taste, class and power in “Whose Style? Taste, Class, And Power In Accra’s Architecture”. In this article, I challenge the notion that Accra faces an architectural style identity crisis by putting forward a coherent architectural style that I call Despite Architecture.
But Accra isn’t all buildings and spaces. It is also places and people. And what is Accra without the people? Sena Dagadu’s upbeat “Accra City People” is an anthem and soundtrack for all of the city people in Accra. In this song she conjures memories of love, joy, peacefulness, gratitude and endless dancing.
Whenever there are different groups of people. There is often inequality and Accra is no exception to this. Poetra Asantewa explores inequalities, politics, breaking points, apathy, and resilience through the sound and feel of Accra through spoken word in “Futuraccra”. Through her vivid portrayal we are transported to “pot-holed roads, drain pipes… and sunken places”
“In Accra, there exists a perpetual tension between the city’s street vendors and hawkers who hustle for a living on the city’s sidewalks and pavement, and the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA)”. Victoria Okoye in “How a New Kind of “Modern” Urban Development Can Include Street Vendors” proposes citizen-centred approaches in which city authorities plan for the realities on the ground.
From time to time, one of the best things to do is to get away from Accra for a while. Perhaps it is a bit of absence making the heart fonder. Efya’s “Get Away” is the perfect listen for that short trip out of Accra. Whether blaring out the car stereo on a group trip, or through some headphones in the back of the long bus ride to Tamale.
But sometimes, the desire to leave is much stronger and the people leaving want much more distance between them and Accra… and Ghana… for a longer time. The subject of visa and travel scams is an important one which Yepoka Yeebo tackles through a deep dive into “The true story of the fake US embassy in Ghana”
The major gateways through which people can ‘legally’ leave Ghana are the land borders at Aflao, Paga, and Elubo, as well as the Kotoka International Airport which was recently expanded to include a new terminal. Jemila Abdulai explored the new airport expansion in “What You Need To Know About Ghana's New Kotoka International Airport Terminal 3”
And while others long to leave, others long to return. This longing and desire is complicated, and as Akua Antwiwaa notes in “The Year of Reckoning: A Return To ___?” , it is also too focused on Accra and an uncritical engagement with the state, our colonial pasts and present realities.
While Accra is friendly, and even overly friendly sometimes, it’s not the same kind of friend to everyone who seeks to visit, to live in it or even to leave it. And this is what these brilliant writers and creators show us - the multifarious nature of Accra with all of the beauty and complexity, harshness and pain, and also always resilience and hope.