Street vendors by the beach, outside of Jamestown.
lington, 2009). Jamestown’s location on the coast and proximity to a lagoon made it an ideal site for industries and trade. A study carried out by Ghanaian students for UNESCO in 2001 indicates that the current condition of housing in Jamestown, which is located in Old Accra, is dire. The majority of the structures and infrastructure in Old Accra have, “...gone beyond bearing capacity and have structural defects or were failing apart and in ruins due to old age and neglect” (Wellington, 2009). A visiting urban planning professional concluded that the removal of the area’s economic basic and complicated family ownership rights led to the, “...lack of maintenance and the generally poor condition of the building fabric” in Jamestown (Bremer, 2002).
Development of Jamestown A British company built James Fort and the resulting Jamestown community with grants from the British Government in 1673 (Wellington, 2009). The fort was constructed on land given to the British by local leaders and was designed to protect European merchants, settlers, and their goods. European interest in the coast led high numbers of Ga migrants to coastal areas, “...to seek protection [from enemy ethnic groups]...and obtain direct trade intercourse with the European dwellers” of the coast (Wellington, 2009). The construction of this British trading post along with other European forts on the coast, “... coincided with the ultimate collapse of an inland Ga Kingdom” (Wellington, 2009). The British were the last European power to set up a settlement in the Accra area and quickly became the most powerful. Through British
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British laid down wider roads throughout the district, Jamestown continues to be characterized by unpaved and paved “narrow, crooked” paths. Global economic trends affected the amount of money the British government allocated to the maintenance of Old Accra: “...during the years of the Great Depression, even fewer funds were marked for the improvement of inner-city [Old Accra] needs. Migration to squatter settlements in Jamestown...increased [but] moderate relief for overcrowding was provided in the form of resettlement to outlying communities” (Hess, 2003). British government interests within the Jamestown area also declined during World Wars. During WWII, British officials were more Government support, merchants and later British interested in further expanding the outlying officials bought the majority of all remaining residential districts (Hess, 2003). forts and Gold Coast possessions from the other British officials used traditional leaders to European powers. In 1844, traditional Ghanaian leaders were persuaded to recognize British juris- keep the streets of the new capital clean, but were diction in Jamestown and other areas acquired by usually reluctant to allocate funds for maintenance. It took natural disasters and pandemics for the British officials (Metcalfe, 1964). British officials to decide to plan, as their primary The decision to move the colonial capital concern became the “good health and prosperity from Cape Coast to Accra was made in 1875 of the European population” (Hess, 2003). because the British felt that Cape Coast was, In 1962, the independent government further “...a particularly unhealthy town...[and that] the developed and planned a neighboring town, open grassland behind Accra, together with the Tema, to house the national port. After transferproximity of...hills, was thought to constitute an environment suitable for European residence, per- ring the port to Tema, Jamestown quickly lost its economic base (Ga Mashie Development Agency, mitting exercise and sport...”(Parker, 2000). The 2009). Many of the regional headquarters of other European districts within Accra developed international companies that relied on shipping rapidly as well but Jamestown became the most moved to Tema as well, leaving behind empty important colonial port district. warehouses. Though Jamestown is still a mixedThe initial English settlement in Accra was unique in that it was not a segregated community use commercial district the old port is nothing more than a poorly maintained fishing harbor. and it was mixed use: “...colonial merchants and The British fort is now a World Heritage site administrators established permanent residences and many of the warehouses that were used by and commercial institutions among existing [merchant family residences] to facilitate trade...” companies sit empty or have been converted into other uses. (Hess, 2003). As a space that was never planned, The last governmental regime in Ghana was the British attempted to impose a more regular interested in improving the living situation in network of roads in the sub-metropolitan area Old Accra. The government invested money in of Jamestown to better facilitate the extraction of resources. From the 1860s to the 1920s Accra “ac- widening roads and restoring colonial buildings. quired the attributes of a typical colonial port city, The Ga Mashie Development Agency (GAMADA) was established in 1999 and is responsible for its built environment fashioned by the requirements of imperial control and the capitalist world the redevelopment projects in Jamestown and neighboring sub-metros. They developed an Old economy”(Parker, 2000). Europeans made sure Accra Framework that is meant to guide developto create and maintain infrastructure—“roads, ment within the Old Accra sub-metros. The railways, harbors, telephone lines—to facilitate national government approved the redevelopment the export of products and enable the movement Framework in 2000. The Framework, written with of migrant labor” (Pellow, 2001). Though the