JAPAN HOUSE KITCHEN
JAPAN HOUSE KITCHEN THE GARDEN CITY ANTHOLOGY
PHOTOGRAPHS BY JÖRG HILLEBRAND
T S U R T
S E G A IM
KUMASI, A WEST-AFRICAN CITY IN GHANA JAPAN HOUSE KITCHEN The Japan House Kitchen is a typical cookshop located in the heart of Suame Magazine in Kumasi. It is a female squatters community. The women are catering and servicing the surrounding workshops. They are migration workers from Northern Ghana with a different tribal background. SUAME MAGAZINE Suame Magazine is an industrial cluster for metal engineering and vehicle repairs in Ghana. It is the most industrialized zone in Ghana and one of the largest industrialized zones in Africa. The Suame Magazine has a working population of over 200,000 and approximately 12,000 shop-owning proprietors. OFFINSO ROAD Offinso Road is an artery road in Kumasi, that connects the northern part of the metropolis to the city centre. It stretches along Suame Magazine for 5 miles before it reaches the city centre of Kumasi called Kejetia aka Central Market. The Central Market is the biggest open-air market in West-Africa. KEJETIA Right in the heart of Ashanti Kumasi, Kumasi Central Market is West Africa’s largest open air market. Virtually everything that one wants to purchase from a market can be found at Kumasi Central Market. It ranges from jewelry, food, toiletries, gorgeous fabrics, spices, and grains. The huge human and vehicular traffic in and around the market makes its management and law enforcement very difficult. Fire outbreaks continue to be the major destroyer of the Kejetia market. The market has had, in the past, several outbreaks that have resulted in the destruction of stores, stalls and their wares. RACE COURSE The Race Course was built by the British colonial government. It served as a whitesonly golf course, cricket pitch, race course and polo field during the colonial days. The land belongs to the Asantehene, the Asante King. After the British left, the Race Course mutated into a market and squatters settlement for the growing number of migrants from Northern Ghana. In 2011 the racecourse was demolished by the city authorities against heavy protest of the traders and settlers in order to build an ultra-modern shopping mall. MAAKRO Maakro, located on Offinso Road, is a major traffic destination in the city´s public transportation network. The vehicles are called tro tro. They are privately owned minibus share taxis that travel fixed routes leaving when filled to capacity. While there are tro tro stations, these vehicles for hire can also be boarded anywhere along the route. The minibus is operated by a driver and a conductor who collects the lorryfare and shouts out the destination. Used by 70% of Ghanaian commuters, tro tro are the most popular form of transport for work and shopping. In Ghana tro tros are licensed by the government, but the industry is self-regulated. THE ADAMS BUILDING The “Adams Building” is an uncompleted multi- storey building in Kumasi, Breman UGC. Breman a typical residential suburb in the metropolitan area.
ASHANTI Kumasi is the capital of an ancient West-African empire: Ashanti. At the peak of its power, this Empire occupied large parts of present day Ghana and Ivory Coast. Kumasi is the centre of the Ashanti culture. This culture still plays an important role in everyday life in Kumasi. As the capital of the Ashanti region and with the Asantehene’s palace in the centre of the city, Kumasi has been a powerful alternative locus of political power to Accra and often a focus of political opposition. INFORMAL CITY Petty trading and informal sector businesses form the base of Kumasi’s economy and they probably represent over 70 per cent of employment in Kumasi. Adaptation and the use of public space is therefore a very common feature in Kumasi. Hawking and street vending is present throughout the city. Small kiosks which house little shops, chop bars (places to eat), sewers, barbers and many more are an urban element of every street. ECONOMIC NETWORK Kumasi is often regarded as the commercial capital of Ghana, with its Kejetia market rivalling Onitsha in Nigeria as West Africa’s largest open-air market. Part of Kumasi’s relative prosperity derives from the timber forest of the surrounding region and natural resources such as gold, rubber, cacao and bauxite but it is also renowned for its local enterprise and artisan skills, particularly in the areas of vehicle engineering and furniture-making, which serve clienteles from surrounding countries. CONGESTION, DISCONNECTION AND POLLUTION Traffic congestion is a major issue in Kumasi. Even outside rush hour, it can take a long time to reach a nearby destination. This congestion coincides with a large amount of smog and air pollution, worsened by the bad condition of the old vehicle stock. Congestion, however, is not the only problem for public transport in Kumasi. Many roads are not paved or well maintained; certainly during the rain season, this creates inaccessibility and disconnection for certain areas of the city. EXPLOSIVE POPULATION GROWTH Kumasi has known an enormous explosion in growth over the last decades. Today, Kumasi has a population of about 2 million people. It is the second biggest city in Ghana. With a grow rate of over 3,5 percent per annum, it is today growing much faster than the capital Accra. CLIMATE The Ashanti region is located in a tropical forest zone. The city therefore knows heavy tropical rainfalls alternated with periods of drought. Deforestation, erosion and frequent floods are important issues in Kumasi. Kumasi is located above an increased soil water level. Many small rivers origin in the area around Kumasi. This makes water pollution, also of the subsoil water, a serious environmental problem.
JAPAN HOUSE KITCHEN The Japan House Kitchen is a typical cookshop located in the heart of Suame Magazine in Kumasi, Ghana. There are around 15-20 women living and working together. Attached to the cookshop is a tailoring shop. It is a female community. They are catering and servicing the surrounding workshops. The majority of them are migration workers from Northern Ghana with a different tribal background. They are Frafra people. Most of them are married or single mothers but live without their men. Together with their children they live as squatters, often for years. Some are teenagers who were sent by their families to work there. A few women are Ashantis who work there but live in nearby areas. Their houses are wooden shacks covered with truck canvasses to protect them from the rains. The shacks are 8-10 square metres. In each room sleeps one family or two to three persons. The site is by the riverbed of the Akosu river, which provides them with water but is a flood prone area at the same time. Landownership is unclear. The land is thus free and available for housing. Apart from the hazardous environmental circumstances the site is well organized and follows a strict task management, which is directed by the senior women. Cookshops like the Japan House Kitchen are numerous and practically to be found at every corner in the Magazine and all over Kumasi, selling simple and local dishes at affordable prices. A few of the JHK women sell the food as street vendors. Together with several thousands of others, they carry and offer their goods to the working population roaming about the Magazine all day long. You hear them praising their goods everywhere, singing, shouting or using hand-bells. They offer practically everything for the daily needs and no-needs of the workers. All prices are negotiable and most transactions are accompanied by noisy bargaining and the latest gossip. In areas with many residents and spare part dealers other types of commercial activities such as hairdressers, tailors, chop bars and kiosks appear. These shops have solid structures such as metal containers or multi-store buildings. They are owned and operated mostly by Ashanti businesswomen. The Suame Magazine in Kumasi, the capital of the Ashanti Kingdom in Ghana, is the biggest industrial cluster in Subsahara Africa. The cluster is engaged mainly in vehicular repairs and metal works with a working population of over 200,000. The women’s activities are an integral part of it.