The Creation of Mercantile Accra Iain Jackson Attribution-Noncommercial-Sharealike 4.0 International [CC BY-NC-SA 4.0] ISBN 978-1-910911-14-3
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Sharing Stories from Jamestown The creation of mercantile Accra Iain Jackson Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International [CC BY-NC-SA 4.0] ISBN 978-1-910911-14-3 Every effort has been made to acknowledge sources and to obtain requisite consent to reproduce material. If cases are identified where this has not been done, please notify the publisher. Errors or omissions will be corrected in a future edition. Sincere thanks to the archives and creators who allowed their original material to be adapted or reproduced. First published by Liverpool School of Architecture / TAG PRESS 2019 Leverhulme Building Abercromby Square Liverpool, UK L69 7ZN Catalogue designed by Allotey Bruce-Konuah, Creative Director, Everyoung JBA Archives www.everyoungjba.org, [email protected] This publication has been funded by a University of Liverpool Public Engagement Grant, with additional support from University of Liverpool School of the Arts, and a British Academy Internationalisation and Mobility Grant. Sharing Stories from Jamestown The creation of mercantile Accra Introduction There is a certain persistence in Accra’s urban devel- These decisions continue to manifest themselves in The obelisk in Salaga Market, for example, no longer opment, and this slow, gradual expansion radiating today’s Accra, and we can observe the more intimate delivers the same message it did after the 1900 An- from the harbour, has ensured that a residue of this density of James Town compared to the more salu- glo-Asanti conflict, and the monument has now itself rich and contested past continues to endure through brious planning at the Ridge. become entombed within a market shelter. the built environment. This exhibition attempts to Whilst the Government agenda and approach has, in Even more recent attempts at nation-building examine this history, materialisation, and politics part, been previously examined, this work has tried through the monumental parade grounds of Indepen- through the architecture and planning of the city, to devote more attention to the mercantile efforts, dent Ghana cannot muster the same nationalist pride using a varied set of source material dating from the examining the ‘every day’ and ‘functional’ premises of they did a mere 60 years ago. Meaning and signif- mid-19th Century to the mid-20th Century. Focusing the traders, as well as their attempts to steer policy. icance are fluid terms that are constantly being chal- almost exclusively on British colonial papers, maps, Jim Richards’ examination of the ‘functional tradition’ lenged and re-created, and whilst James Town was mercantile records, medical reports, and associated from the 1950s is particularly of note here, and whilst largely dominated by the large mercantile traders, it ephemera, the work tells a particular, and occasion- many of Accra’s mercantile and harbour warehouses should not be thought of merely as a ‘colonial con- ally problematic story about Accra’s growth into a are not always sophisticated or celebrated struc- struct’, or somehow not Ghanaian through this as- major regional conurbation in West Africa, and the tures, together they form a large and important sociation. It presents a far more complex, uncertain, capital city of Ghana. The source material is, by its group of buildings from a particular period, offering and contrary set of phenomena to untangle. Through very nature, presenting a very particular view point, a unique collection from this turbulent period. Fur- a careful examination of the built environment we most of which was captured at a moment when the thermore, they are of a particular type, encompass- can, perhaps, begin to understand this place and also British Empire was at its peak in terms of land mass ing luxury villa, shop front, warehouse, agriculture to cherish and appropriately re-use, reimagine, and and socio-political influence. Whilst revealing the yard, and factory – often all within one compound. thus re-appropriate the structures that remain with ambition and varied exploits of the imperial mission, These business vortexes were complex organisations us today. this material also displays a vulnerability and lack of handling imports and exports as well as managing certainty – a timid and somewhat hesitant approach agencies and subsidiary companies. They also traded At a recent lecture given in Kumasi, I was accused of to development, that until the 20th Century barely in ‘entertainment’ and were often the sites for open- wanting to ‘preserve everything’ and to create a stat- ventured beyond the coast. The work reveals an in- air film projections in compounds decorated with a ic relic of a museumified city. This could not be fur- teresting cleft between the Government officials and more flamboyant architecture. ther from the truth. Our cities are alive, and they need the mercantile community, one that was partially to grow, change and shift to suit new requirements, bridged by characters such as Joseph Chamber- Having uncovered old photographs, maps, drawings land value, population levels, and so on. But what we lain and Gordon Guggissberg, and their ambitions and postcards from various archives, we have set must do in this frantic drive for modernisation and to develop key infrastructure; railways, docklands, out to trace these buildings in today’s Accra. Many improvement, is to carefully assess what we have ‘tropical medicine’ and schools. Whilst these grand survive in various states of [dis]repair and there is a around us, and not to discount the value that resides projects clearly transformed the geography of the certain joy and seductive quality to the ‘before and in an old building from an artefact point of view, but terrain, tropical medicine proved to have an equally after’ images. But hopefully these graphical traces also, and perhaps more importantly because of the significant bearing. It prompted the desire for Euro- can be used in a more critical manner to help us the intangible embodied stories, memories, crafts, pean officials to live in ‘segregated’ housing from the understand how the city developed, and the reasons and events they also shelter. African population, a move that was questioned and that prompted decisions to be made. The built fabric A careful and sensitive use of heritage need not resented not only by the African community, but also acts as a repository, and like all documents or texts, restrict development – indeed, it can enhance and various Governors and European merchants. This it continues to change in terms of physical remnants increase the value of new projects, as well as ensur- approach was to have major ramifications for the and tangible qualities. Accra presents some extreme ing that the embodied energy of the built fabric is not development of the town, resulting in vast swathes cases with only the delicate fragments of a shell lost. The array of markets, warehouses, villas and of prime land being set aside as cordon sanitaire. For remaining, for others it is too late and the entire site compounds is a gift for creative industries, events, the traders and merchants, this tactic was largely has been flattened (such as Sea View Hotel). Equally, recitals, as well as small scale production, manufac- ignored, and many continued to live in the vibrant buildings also stimulate or provoke different mean- turing and enterprise, and I hope this exhibition can “native” trading quarters, such as James Town, devel- ings, receptions and interpretations over time. provoke and stimulate further interest, research and oping large estates, warehouses, and eventually high ambition in this historic core of the city. end department stores. Atswere niji Otswere le mra ajeo ni ohereo. 3 Acknowledgements The generosity and kindness extended towards this project Archives Consulted has been very moving, and I’m indebted to so many people, Barclays Group Archives especially the welcoming communities of James Town. The British Library I’d also like to thank Irene Appeaning Addo; Soumyen Ban- The British Museum dyopadhyay; Barclays Group Archives and James Darby; KNUST Library The Basel Mission Archive; The British Museum; Stuart Liverpool Medical Institute Carroll and the Technical Staff at Liverpool University Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine School of the Arts; Andrew Crompton; George Intsiful; London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine KNUST library staff and head librarian Samuel K. Nikoi; The National Archives, UK Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine; Kuukuwa Manful; Oxford Bodleian Library Liz McGuiness; Nat Nuno-Amarteifio; The UK National Public Records And Archives Department (PRAAD, Accra) Archives; London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine School of Oriental and African Studies and Claire Frankland; Rexford Assasie Oppong; Unilever Archives, Port Sunlight Peter Pimblett; Bright Botwe and staff at Public Records University of Liverpool Special Collections and Archives And Archives Department; Augustus Richardson; Wirral Archives Tuuli Saarela; Lukasz Stanek; John Traynor; Belinda Tyrrell; Yale Center for British Art Ola Uduku; Unilever Archives and Ruth Loughrey, Debbie Thompson, Helen Unsworth; University of Liverpool Special Collections and Archives and Library, especially Jo Klett and Sian Wilks; Henry Wellington; Martin Winchester, Steve Winterton; Wirral Archives; Yale Center for British Art and Maria Singer. Thank you to Joe Oase Addo and Allotey Bruce-Konuah for their encouragement, passion and expertise, and for making me feel so at home in James Town. ArchiAfrika and the James Town Café have also generously hosted the inaugural showing of this exhibition – Thank You. The British Academy International Mobility and Part- nerships Grant generously funded the early part of this research and enabled so many of the visits to Ghana and UK Archives. I’m also grateful to Liverpool University School of the Arts for their support and funding, and to Liverpool University for awarding a ‘Public Engagement Grant’ that made the exhibition and catalogue possible. A very special thank you to Jo, Pippa, and Dylan for all their continued love and support. Iain Jackson. 4 Sharing Stories from Jamestown The creation of mercantile Accra Jamestown Lighthouse with the Seaview Hotel on the right.