SUAME MAGAZINE: AN INDUSTRIAL JUNGLE

SUAME MAGAZINE

AN INDUSTRIAL JUNGLE

SUAME MAGAZINE

THE GARDEN CITY ANTHOLOGY AN INDUSTRIAL JUNGLE

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JÖRG HILLEBRAND

T S U R T

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IMAGE

Suame Magazine is an industrial cluster for metal engineering and vehicle repairs in Kumasi, Ghana, the capital of the Ashanti kingdom. It has its origins in the colonial era and is the biggest industrial cluster in Subsahara-Africa. The Suame Magazine has a working population of over 200,000 and approximately 12,000 shop-owning proprietors. They all work in the informal sector.

Law and order follow their own anarchic rules.

It is a shadow economy, which faithfully follows only one law: “The survival of the fittest“. Some look at the Magazine as a post-apocalyptic junkyard, but for the artisans and traders it is simply the major economic platform of the entire region.

KUMASI, A WEST-AFRICAN CITY 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.

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.

”No matter the economy in the jungle I will never eat glass. It´s not pride but Christ.”

Osama, a local spareparts dealer

A BRIEF HISTORY The Magazine originated from informal family businesses working with brass artefacts, goldsmith and armoury manufacturing in the late 1920´s. When vehicle repairing became a prosperous business the artisans established small groups. The clustering of the artisans continued and the development of the city infrastructure contributed to relocate the artisans to various sites in the inner city. As the businesses have grown bigger the apprentices no longer came from within the families, but from all over Ghana to learn the skills performed in The Magazine. In 1935 groups of artisans organised in clusters in the formerly armoury area of the colonial masters known as the “magazine�. The name refers to the magazine in a weapon, and has stuck to the workshops ever since. These fitter workshops were found around the Race Course, which served as a recreational site for the British as well and was abandoned after Ghana reached independence in 1957.

In the plan from 1963, the present site of the Magazine has been laid out as an industrial zone, which covers 180 hectares. Since then the Magazine is located in Suame, a suburb in the north of Kumasi.

SUAME MAGAZINE: AN INDUSTRIAL JUNGLE an unknown travellers impression “Today we went shopping for a welding machine and various hardware. At first I wasn’t paying much attention, because there are only so many miles of shops you can look at. But all of the sudden I sat up like a dog in a car who sees another one on the street. All around me, the shops were selling grinding wheels and welding masks. We had arrived in Kumasi Suame Magazine, the part of town where metal things are made, cut apart, and made into other metal things. Suame is the neighborhood of Kumasi that it is located in, but nobody could tell me why they call the district ‘magazine’... if it’s related to the English word at all, perhaps it has to do with the fact that a magazine can mean something that holds lots of things, as in a gun magazine.

Words cannot describe this place. The closest comparison I can make is to the set of Waterworld, on land in Bladerunner world, designed by the lost boys from Peter Pan, managed by Doozers from Fraggle Rock, and staffed by Vulcan and his cyclops minions from The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.

It is a large junkyard, maybe five square miles (I never saw the end of it), with only a few streets running through it, and little tin shops crammed in between towering piles of scrap where people were either making something metal, destroying something metal, or selling the tools and hardware that are required to do those two things.

Cracks between buildings that I would have never thought to squeeze down were major thoroughfares. Emungous chunks of machinery- such as a giant bulldozer tread or an engine block taller than me from some unfathomably huge vehicle- appeared to have been sitting there for years since the buildings around them had grown up and prevented access by anything large enough to budge them.

Tractors were being stripped for parts while next door teams of workers swarmed over a minivan, putting it together. Piles of half-stripped forklifts. Jungles of scrap pipe. The din of a thousand hammers. I know when you picture this in your head you are picturing these shops and piles as distict, with open space in between, but there was no open space. You know in Labyrinth when Sarah wakes up outside the Goblin City in the junkyard? It was like that, only with bigger junk, and people lived and worked there. I keep comparing it to movies because there is nothing in America like this, not that I’ve ever heard of. Another apt comparison would be any interior shot of a Borg ship from Star Trek.

I was reeling. Most things were being made out of other things. Everyone was welding, grinding, hammering, bolting, smelting, and chopping. How can I call myself a Rat? How dare I claim to chop?

I might as well be knitting doilies compared to this place. I was humbled and stunned. I’ll go back to take pictures, but they won’t do it justice. Even a hundred pictures of a hundred different activities wouldn’t do it, because you just wouldn’t conceive of the density of those activities. You’d have to do what I did, be led down twisting corridors and around rotting cranes for a mile, and see the thousand activities in action.

I had slipped the surly bonds of earth and touched the face of God. So much beauty, so much creation, so much DOing... “

BUILDING TYPOLOGIES Residential Shacks The residential shacks are wooden and corrugated iron structures, concentrated mostly along the streams.

The buildings seem temporary but many of them have been there for many years. Some have concrete floors, but few windows, and no water or sanitation. They are 8-10 square metres and often built in clusters. In each room sleeps one family or two to three persons. It is often tribes from the northern part of Ghana who reside in these shacks.

Residential Buildings The residential buildings are larger permanent structures built in sandcrete with corrugated iron roofs. They can be as big as 300 square metres in ground plan and up to three storeys high. Usually, they are houses built 40 years ago when the first plan for The Magazine was made by the Town and Country Planning Department. The buildings accommodate from 15 to 50 persons. Other residential buildings are one-storey detached houses built within the last 25 years by single families. Usually, they house 10 persons, but in case of additional extensions up to 60 persons.

Commercial Shacks and Containers The commercial shacks and containers are 15-20 square metres and either hold work-shops, sparepart dealers or other commercial activities such as kiosks. They are temporary wooden, iron, and corrugated iron structures. In case of workshops, the shacks are storage for tools and other work related articles. The place of work is around the shack, and the work-shop occupies maybe 10 times as big an area as the shack itself. In these workshops 3-10 persons work from 6 in the morning until 6 in the evening. The spare-part shacks and containers have a display in front, which mean that they occupy an area twice their size. Because it is only sale, few (1-5) persons are employed in these stores. Other commercial activities carry out their sale or work within the shacks. Only 1-3 persons work in these places.

Commercial Storey Buildings The commercial storey buildings are large permanent sandcrete structures with a ground plan of up to 300 square metres. They are one to two storeys and contain mostly spare-part dealers or stores associated with for instance sale of mobile phones or clothes. Some buildings can hold 16 stores with altogether 30-40 employees. According to Charles Ampomah, the development of larger sandcrete structures started in the mid-eighties and at the same time people started living in the area. In the seventies and the early eighties many of the workers in The Magazine where not as well to do as some are today, but in the mid-eighties and the nineties, those who sold spare-parts started making more profit. Some of these spare-part dealers are among the wealthiest men in Ghana today. Before the mid-eighties the spare-part dealers used to be in the same low-income group as the mechanics. Eventually, they started developing their business, which made it possible for some of them to invest in permanent buildings. When Ghana’s economy started to worsen the import of new cars stopped. People continued driving old cars and the need for spare-parts increased. The old cars needed a lot more maintenance and the spare-part dealers profited because of this. The appearance

of the Forex exchange bureaux gives a sound idea of the money that is being made in this area. The local monetary standard is devalued to an extent where larger business deals are done in USD. The master craftsmen and the ones who became wealthy on the industry are not primarily the ones living in the Magazine today. They only build the houses and make money on collecting rent. Often they dislike the noisy environment and pollution and live outside the Magazine.

Mixed Use Storey Buildings The mixed use storey buildings are of the same type as the commercial storey buildings. However, instead of two storeys of shops, there are shops on the ground floor and accommodation on the first floor. Sometimes the owner of the building lives with his family on the first floor, and sometimes he lives elsewhere and the first floor is for rent. In the Old Site, these buildings have water and sanitation. The mixed use buildings are located on light-industrial plots, which is not according to the KMA’s plan. It probably developed in this way because of the upgrading of the infrastructure and other facilities which attracted potential inhabitants.

LANDOWNERSHIP The land in The Magazine is divided into 8 different areas controlled by 8 different Ashanti chiefs: Tafo Stool Lands, Nkontwima Stool Land, Tarkwa-Maakro Stool Land, Nkofehene Stool Land, Ahensanhene Stool Land, Asafohene Stool Land, and Mpintinkahene Stool Land. To begin with the plots were sold by the chiefs to individuals for the purpose of making mechanical workshops. Since there was no regulation stating this, later inheritors of the plots have started using them for other more profitable purposes such as stores.

Most artisans rent the plot on which they have their workshop and thereby have no influence on whether the owner chooses to change the use of it. This appears to be the main problem in the present development of the Magazine. Many plots have been purchased by developers, or the owners have chosen to build storey buildings with spare-parts instead of work-shops. Subsequently the work-shops are forced to move and find new land for their activities. According to Kumi Koduah and Charles Ampomah, Metropolitan Engineer, KMA (Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly), there have been several disputes and lawsuits concerning the ownership of the land. Especially between GNAG and the Tafo Chief, where it even came to riots. This is also one of the reasons why the World Bank, who was working in New Site, suspended all its activities. In the 90’s people started buying land from the chiefs instead of GNAG. One of the problems at the moment, in the Tafo Stool Lands, is that the artisans renting plots both have to pay drink-money to the chief and groundrent to KMA. KMA have tried to parcel out the land in the New Site, but it was not effectuated and a number of chiefs, who claimed having ownership of the land, started selling bits and pieces of the land to individuals.

Things changed when the chiefs became aware of the money they could make on selling land. People in Old Site started as tenants, but today many of them own their plots, and some have started making permanent buildings and houses. Buying land from the chiefs made it possible for the new owners to be in control of the land. In addition, it created a sense of security of tenance and freedom.

The central assembly point for scrapmetals in the Magazine

“Standford Bridge”, one of many bridges crossing the “Akosu” river.

Imported second hand truck axles, predominatly from European manufacturers.

The Akosu river and the mosque

Aisha is from Northern Ghana and works as an apprentice in a tailor´s shop. She fetches water from the nearby river.

The “Akosu� river, the adjoining shacks are in a flood prone area during the rain season.

A mixed zone of dwelling places and workshops

Uncle Ebo and his apprentice. He is an expert in plastic forming.

Together with his apprentice he rebuilds made to measure tail light housings from plain plastic material.

Alhaji is a pensionaire. He came to the Magazine as a teenager in the 1950ies from Northern Ghana. He returns to his old workshop everyday and is probably among the eldest artisans in the Magazine.

Artisans and Apprentices Education in the Magazine is gained through informal knowledge sharing. The artisans take in apprentices whom they educate. In 2001, 74% of the artisans stated that they had acquired their skills being apprentices. 16% have had a formal education, while the rest either had learned it from practise or experience.

The apprentices pay a fee to the artisan and sometimes they are expected to buy their own tools.

However, while the training is going on, the artisan pays an allowance to the apprentice. The apprenticeship will take at least 3 years, but usually longer. There are four stages to pass before having learned the trade: the preparatory stage, the acquisitive stage, the imaginative stage, and the innovative stage.

The preparatory stage (0-12 months): The apprentices have to clean the workshop in the morning before the other workers come to work. He is expected to watch closely what the other apprentices, workers, and the master is doing. Sometimes he will even sleep in the workshop and working as a watchman.

The acquisitive stage (12-18 months): The apprentice learns the basic skills. He usually stands beside the master and follows his instructions. The master will do the specialized work and the apprentice will finish it.

The imaginative stage (12-18 months): The apprentice is beginning to discuss the work and techniques with the master. At this stage he will probably have advanced to a senior apprentice and is working with other new apprentices.

The innovative stage (12-18 months): This is the final stage in the apprenticeship. The apprentice knows how the job is carried out. He is beginning to adopt trial and error methods. Furthermore, he will be able to make innovative alterations to broken spare-parts, which are expensive to buy. At this stage, he is beginning to prepare starting his own workshop and to become a master himself.

After the apprentice is educated there is no certificate to be given to prove his skills. He has to rely on people knowing him, or he has to prove his skills every time somebody wants work done. To many educated apprentices it is a problem that they do not have a document proving their skills after 3-8 years of education, but still many spend their entire professional life in the Magazine.

Master and apprentice

2008

2012

An electromechanical workshop. Ghana suffers over persistent, irregular and unpredictable electric power outages since 2010. The frequent blackouts are caused by a power supply shortage and cripple many small businesses.

“As he pours dangerous molten metal from a home-made furnace at a ferocious 600 degrees, a worker flings a skimpy T-shirt around his head for protection. Another worker grabs a chunk of mud and shoves it into the makeshift foundry to plug the flaming lava flow of molten metal. None have safety helmets or other equipment. Their neighbours at nearby industrial workshops are wearing plastic flip-flops and shorts. Their welding cables are ripped and exposed, risking a highvoltage shock, and few of the welders wear safety glasses. Safety is an afterthought for the 200,000 people in horrific conditions in one of Africa’s biggest industrial slums. Survival comes first, and they need to eat. At first glance, it seems like a vast wasteland of tin shacks and wrecked cars and impoverished mechanics, where the dust-choked air is filled with hammering, banging, pounding, shouting and the sound of generators due to a severe energy-crisis in Ghana.”

A melting furnace

Parts needed in larger quantities are cast in the Magazine.

Ready-cast engine blocks

Scrapmetals are collected all throughout Kumasi and sold in the Magazine.

One of many scrapmetal buyers in the Magazine

Street vendors offer practically everything for the daily needs and noneeds of the workers. Cheap chinese goods are widespread in Ghana.

Burning residual materials to gain the semiprecious metals.

A spray color shop

Broken vehicles are dismantled and sold in pieces. Nearly each vehicle part can be reused in another car. What doesn’t fit will be made to fit by the multitude of workshops.

A Volkswagen workshop

Maintainance of newer cars is diffucult and one the major challenges for the Magazine.

There are only a few workshops which use autodiagnostics. Due to a lack of original spare parts electronic components are often replaced by old ones, which may result in new errors.

Master Aleewa´s workshop. He repairs Volkswagen models up to Golf IV. Aleewa lives in Germany now.

Mike is the new manager of the workshop.

“We are creators and imitators.

We dissemble and reassemble.�

Mike receiveed a sparepart request by phone from another workshop. He has the small pump in his stock. It sells for 21 Euros. The workshops are linked among each other.