Cultural Differences and Urban Spatial Forms: Elements of Boundedness in an Accra Community

Abstract

In this article, I expand on Coquery‐Vidrovitch's observation (1991) that to understand each African urban milieu, we must view it as more than a fusion of European, American, or traditional culture. Rather, we must see each African city as unique, that is, in fact, internally differentiated, containing a multitude of enclaves that vary one from another in their respective social, physical, and architectural spatial forms. I focus on one community in Accra known as Sabon Zongo. Founded by migrant Hausa from northern Nigeria almost a century ago, it is neither typically southern Ghanaian nor Hausa, having adapted to a mixed cultural milieu. Laid out by the British as part of their town plan, its manner of growth has blurred the original scheme. I examine a number of components that define the uniqueness of this particular urban community, including physical delineations (within Sabon Zongo and between it and the city at large), local knowledge, the landscape, the infrastructure, market and street trade, and centripetal socio‐spatial structures such as the family compound. [Ghana, zongo, social‐spatial linkage]

Building Sense Out of Households: Migrants from Chuuk (Re)create Local Settlements in Guam

“…Through an analysis of household and house forms, I explored gendered ideologies and culturally based avoidance behavior and how migrants conceive of their spatial arrangements and dwellings. In this manner, “spatial meanings are cultural productions” (Pellow 2001:73). The ways in which migrants from Chuuk think about and respond to Western processes of social change and urbanization can be seen in the roles of household heads who are firstborn males.…”

An Urban “Mixity”: Spatial Dynamics of Social Interactions and Human Behaviors in the Abese informal Quarter of La Dadekotopon, Ghana

“…Previous studies have pointed to how most indigenous Ghanaian communities, in GAMA and elsewhere, are composed of family houses where cultural values and ethnic principles are embedded in built forms [17,22]. Nonetheless, this study presents a unique focus on clan-based spatial organization in informal-but-legal settlements in GAMA.…”

“…Nonetheless, this study presents a unique focus on clan-based spatial organization in informal-but-legal settlements in GAMA. The study reveals that, beyond how residents build houses within such settlements [22], the nature of accessibility and permeability through roads and alleys is configured to facilitate social interaction. It also stands in marked contrast to migrant and squatter settlements [62], where such socio-spatial and cultural imprints may be missing.…”

A comparative study of ethnic residential segregation in Ghana’s two largest cities, Accra and Kumasi

“…Here, persistent concentration of some ethnic groups at specific areas of Accra and Kumasi may not be due to economic factors but for cultural reasons. Among other reasons, some analysts cite cultural factors, especially strong attachment of the Ga-Dangme to their urban communities as accounting for the continuous presence of the Ga-Dangme in James Town and other indigenous areas of Accra (Pellow 2001;George-Grandy 2008). This same reason may also partly account for the strong concentration of Akans in many neighbourhoods of Kumasi.…”

“…The comparative analysis of the residential ethnic segregation of Ghana's two largest cities, Accra and Kumasi, is rare in the urban literature on Ghana, as the limited studies on ethnicity have concentrated on national and regional aggregate level analyses (see GSS 2005;Langer 2007) and far more limited studies on intra/ inter-urban analyses (see Stahl 1991;Sanjek 1977;Pellow 1988Pellow , 2001AgyeiMensah and Owusu 2010). In addition, this study provides a basis for making a comparative analysis with the 2010 Population and Housing Census in Ghana.…”