THE MENTAL ESTATES
LAW BUT NO ORDER
THE MENTAL ESTATES
THE GARDEN CITY ANTHOLOGY
LAW BUT NO ORDER
PHOTOGRAPHS BY JÖRG HILLEBRAND
T S U R T
S E G A M I
Landsat satellite images showing land cover change of Kumasi between 1986 and 2003.
THE MENTAL ESTATES: LAW BUT NO ORDER Kumasi, auch bekannt als die „Gartenstadt“ ist die zweitgrösste Stadt Ghanas. Sie ist das Zentrum einer stark wachsenden Metropolregion im subtropischen Landesinneren. Dort treffen sich traditionelle Handels- und Verkehrswege, was Kumasi für das Land wirtschaftlich und kulturell so bedeutsam macht. Kumasi ist auch das Zentrum des Ashanti- Königreiches und gleichzeitig Anziehungspunkt für alle Ethnien Ghanas. Das Ashantivolk spielte eine herausragende Rolle im Konflikt mit den Briten während der Kolonialisierung der ehemaligen Goldküste. Im Jahr 1900 wurde die Stadt durch die Briten erobert und anschliessend komplett zerstört. Die Ashantis leisteten dabei erbitterten Widerstand. Das Land wurde britische Kolonie. Die städtebauliche Neuplanung und der Wiederaufbau erfolgte unter britischer Regie und nach dem Vorbild britischer Gartenstädte des 19ten Jahrhunderts. Die eigentlichen und besonders gravierenden Veränderungen im Stadtbild begannen jedoch erst mit dem Ende der Kolonialzeit und setzen sich bis heute unvermindert fort. Stark zunehmendes Beölkerungswachstum und Zuwanderung durch Landflucht anderer Ethnien lässt die Stadt an ihren Rändern rasant wachsen. Immer mehr neue Flächen werden ohne besondere staatliche und städtebauliche Planung engmaschig bebaut. Gezielte infrastrukturelle Massnahmen wie Straßenbau, Kanalisation, Wasser und Energieversorgung finden in Ghana in der Regel erst lange nach der eigentlichen Besiedlung statt. Die ehemalige Gartenstadt und die einst prächtige Natur weichen großflächigen, städtischen Siedlungen mit hoher Bevölkerungsdichte, sogenannten „residential areas“, die mehrheitlich von Ashantis besiedelt werden. Ein Großteil der Hauseigentümer sind im Ausland lebende Ghanaer, die sich mit ihren Investitionen ihren Lebenstraum erfüllen und gleichzeitig ihre zurückgebliebenen Familien unterstützen. Mittlerweile, nach knapp 60 Jahren Unabhängigkeit und Demokratie in Ghana befindet sich das Land und seine Bevölkerung an der Schwelle zur globalen Ökonomie, allein der politische Gestaltungswille der herrschenden Eliten fehlt. Gute Wachstumsaussichten der vergangenen Jahre haben sich mittlerweile in ihr Gegenteil verkehrt. Die weitere wirtschaftliche Entwicklung stagniert. „Law but no order“. Ghana ist heute eine anarchische Demokratie. Dass diese materiellen Zielvorstellungen sich bereits hartnäckig im Bewusstsein der Bevölkerung eingenistet haben, ist vor allem für die junge Generation problematisch. Viele sind mit der Aussicht auf mehr Wohlstand grossgeworden. Schlecht ausgebildet und ohne fundierte, berufliche Erfahrungen haben aber nur wenige eine Chance auf eine geradlinige berufliche Karriere. Die dafür bereitgestellten staatlichen Mittel wurden in der Vergangenheit immer wieder zweckentfremdet. Breman UGC ist ein Stadtteil am Rand von Kumasi, den ich exemplarisch für Ghanas jüngere Geschichte sehe. Die Bilder entstanden im Zeitraum von 2008-2015.
KUMASI, A WEST-AFRICAN CITY IN GHANA THE MENTAL ESTATES is about Breman UGC, a typical residential suburb in the Kumasi metropolitan area. 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. 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. 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. 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.
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.
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