ity on what they called the Gold Coast. Formal colonial rule by Britain began on July 24, 1874 and lasted until March 6, 1957. British interest in limiting French influence in, and extracting valuable resources from, the region led to the development of communities outside of the original British command center in Ghana, Cape Coast (Metcalfe, 1964). European trading companies, financed by their respective governments, set up forts along the Ghanaian coast. Warehouses and other physical buildings were also built to help support the extraction of slaves, valuable metals and agricultural products. Traditional leaders and heads of family gave these European merchants land in Accra and traded with them. After declaring that Accra was the new capital city of the Gold Coast in 1877, “...the European traders and administrators increased in numbers and began to segregate themselves; living among the Africans was deemed unsanitary and unhealthy due to malaria, especially once the male administrators were joined by their wives” (Pellow, 2001). After the British introduced the concept of private land and decreed that land could be seized for “appropriate” government purposes, they began to build their residential settlements inwards, leaving behind their initial settlements on the coast. One settlement that was “abandoned”—first by the British and then by the independent Ghanaian government—was Jamestown, is a sub-metropolitan area of Accra that has suffered from disinvestment because families that own the land refuse to coordinate with government development efforts. The British obtained land by compensating paramount traditional leaders as their settlements moved inwards. They only planned for areas where they lived or had economic interests, such as on the coast. Those spaces were also bound by the regulations set out by the British to control the construction and design of structures. As a result, islands of “planned” areas emerged on the coast of Ghana and were surrounded by spaces without government provided services or utilities, such as running water or paved roads. Today, over fifty years after gaining independence from the British in 1957, there are still pockets of unplanned areas in Ghana without basic infrastructure and government provided utilities.
One such sub-metropolitan area that continues to remain under developed because of issues of land ownership is East Legon.
Case studies
current physical and demographic data of these sub-metros support those classifications and have developed partly as a result of ownership conflicts. While parcels of land in Jamestown are held by hundreds of families, traditional leaders and then the government held land in East Legon.
The sub-metropolitan districts within the AMA are classified from first- to fourth-class Residential Districts (AMA Planning Office, 2009). First-class Jamestown: Initial British districts tend to be low-density districts and land Settlement and Family Ownership that was or currently is administrated by the Jamestown is located on the coast of the Government. These areas also tend to be high- and AMA. It was the initial British settlement in middle-class non-indigenous (that is, non-Ga) the Accra area that grew around a British fort. areas. East Legon is considered a first-class district Before becoming an important colonial port city, in some parts, while Jamestown is categorized Jamestown was the site of a Ga fishing village and as a fourth-class, with high-density, low-class part of a series of villages that were considered and indigenousOwnership housing space in the city. The the “cultural epicenter” of the Ga people (WelType Description
State/ Public Land
Acquired and administrated by Sub-metropolitan East Legon government. Makesareas up ofabout 22%and ofJamestown are outlined in the context of Ghana and its regions. land in Ghana.
Vested Land
Previously customary land but declared under the Land Administration Act (Act 123) to be vested and administrated by the State for the 'benefit' of indigenous community.
Customary Land
Stool/ Skin Land: Land is held in a stool and administrated by a paramount leader for the indigenous community. Family Land: Land administrated and distributed by Family head.
Private Land
Geography
Population
Land is owned by an individual
Number of Houses
Number of Households
Households/ House
People/House
East Legon
7681
1340
1750
1.31
5.73
Jamestown
13617
691
3336
4.83
19.71
A.M.A
1,658,937
132,355
356,550
2.69
12.53
Greater Accra
2,905,726
287,840
626,611
2.18
10.09
Table 1. Housing and household statistics from 2000 census. Source: Ghana Statistical Service.
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