Urban West Africa Research Articles

Dis/incremental Dwelling and the Right to the Beach in Jamestown, Accra, Ghana

AbstractIn mid‐2020, the municipal authority of Accra, Ghana levelled the dwellings of approximately 450 residents remaining in an informal beach settlement in Jamestown, long the centre of an artisanal fishing economy. The destruction marked the culmination of at least four demolition cycles to clear ground for a Chinese‐financed commercial harbour. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted between demolitions, we demonstrate how residents erected smaller, more precarious structures designed for ease of disassembly/reassembly using cheaper, salvaged building materials—a tactic we term dis/incremental dwelling. We interpret these practices of everyday refusal as asserting residents’ “right to the beach”—a claim to access beach and marine space, to participate in convivial associative life and the informal fishing economy, and to resist political marginalisation from infrastructure development and ocean grabbing. The right to the beach provides a conceptual and political vocabulary to centre just coastal futures in urban West Africa and beyond.

Political Repression, Refugee Crises and Labor Migration from Post-Colonial Mali

This article zooms in on the ways in which forced migration articulates with labor migration in urban West Africa. Precisely, it reflects on how the refugee crisis contributes to labor migration and, inversely, how labor migration is used as a strategy to respond to the predicament induced by the adverse and often deeply humiliating living conditions of exile. To this end, we situate the article within broader scholarly debates on migration categories. We use the notion “exile” to refer to the social conditions induced by political persecution-related relocations from Mali to Niger and Senegal. Our discussion draws on data collected from freeborn Tuareg from Mali in Niamey and former Malian students who fled the dictatorship of Moussa Traoré. The results prompt a reflection that prioritizes the empirical connections between forced and labor migrations over their differences, something that is often taken for granted in the academic literature and in political narratives.

Male engagement in family planning: the role of faith leaders in urban West Africa.

Sustainable Development Goal 3 aims to improve access to modern contraceptives and inform and educate people on family planning (FP). However, contraceptive use among women of reproductive age in West Africa is low at approximately 20%. One related factor is the limited engagement of males in FP decision-making. Addressing this issue requires a multiplicity of approaches, including the engagement of faith leaders. Faith leaders are often trusted by their congregants and could be an avenue to promoting male involvement in FP. In this report, we discuss the role of faith leaders in two West African countries, Nigeria and Ghana. We conducted 11 in-depth interviews with faith leaders in Nigeria and Ghana. Our exploratory findings indicate that faith leaders seem to have adequate knowledge and a positive perspective on male engagement and FP. In addition, the relationship of trust faith leaders maintain with their congregants is valuable in educating or counselling congregants on male engagement and FP.

Factors influencing hesitancy towards adult and child COVID-19 vaccines in rural and urban West Africa: a cross-sectional study

ObjectivesThis study aims: (1) to identify and describe similarities and differences in both adult and child COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, and (2) to examine sociodemographic, perception-related and behavioural factors influencing vaccine...

A Multicentre Observational Study of HIV, TB and Risk of Chronic Lung Disease in Urban West Africa

A Multicentre Observational Study of HIV, TB and Risk of Chronic Lung Disease in Urban West Africa

Diversity challenges from urban West Africa: How Senegalese family deaths illuminate dominant understandings of ‘bereavement’

ABSTRACTBased on interviews with Senegalese people living in four contemporary urban neighbourhoods, who had experienced the death of an adult family member, we explore how the research challenged ...

Chinese Commodity Imports in Ghana and Senegal: Demystifying Chinese Business Strength in Urban West Africa

Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, independent entrepreneurial migrants from China have been increasingly flocking to Africa in search of greener pastures. This paper scrutinizes the empirical foundations of the increasingly hostile discourses of African traders regarding the alleged encroachment of the West African urban market space by Chinese petty entrepreneurs. Based on indepth ethnographic fieldwork and interviews, we aim to demystify this common allegation by exploring the diversity of influx channels through which Chinese commodities, said to create unfair and existential competition, come to the African continent. Our analysis of trade trajectories shows that Chinese products were coming to Africa long before the arrival of independent Chinese migrants at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Statistical evidence further supports our stance that Chinese entrepreneurs still represent a minority group in the import of cheap China goods into Ghana and Senegal.

Reduced transmission of Mycobacterium africanum compared to Mycobacterium tuberculosis in urban West Africa

ObjectiveUnderstanding transmission dynamics is useful for tuberculosis (TB) control. A population-based molecular epidemiological study was conducted to determine TB transmission in Ghana. MethodsMycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) isolates obtained from prospectively sampled pulmonary TB patients between July 2012 and December 2015 were characterized using spoligotyping and standard 15-locus mycobacterial interspersed repetitive unit variable number tandem repeat (MIRU-VNTR) typing for transmission studies. ResultsOut of 2309 MTBC isolates, 1082 (46.9%) unique cases were identified, with 1227 (53.1%) isolates belonging to one of 276 clusters. The recent TB transmission rate was estimated to be 41.2%. Whereas TB strains of lineage 4 belonging to M. tuberculosis showed a high recent transmission rate (44.9%), reduced recent transmission rates were found for lineages of Mycobacterium africanum (lineage 5, 31.8%; lineage 6, 24.7%). ConclusionsThe study findings indicate high recent TB transmission, suggesting the occurrence of unsuspected outbreaks in Ghana. The observed reduced transmission rate of M. africanum suggests other factor(s) (host/environmental) may be responsible for its continuous presence in West Africa.

Herd immunity: hyperimmune globulins for the 21st century

Recent headlines, including outbreaks of Ebola virus disease in urban west Africa, the intercontinental transmission of Middle East respiratory syndrome virus (MERS) from the Arabian Peninsula to South Korea, and the emergence of Zika virus as a fetal neurotoxic agent, highlight the global threat posed by emerging infectious diseases in an increasingly connected world.

Millennial Women Traders in Accra, Ghana: New Twists on Existing Social Networks and Technologies

Two decades ago Gracia Clark's work (1988, 1991, 1994) on women traders in Kumasi established a benchmark for research on markets in urban West Africa where problems such as sanitation and disease, slum clearance, under/unemployment and poverty dominated public concern and research. Today's concern with sustainability recognizes women's role in food production, marketing and family reproduction. In this paper the concerns of earlier studies connect with the reality of new social networks and technologies in the marketplace: women in same sex intimate relationships and their social practices in Accra. Young sexually non-normative women in Mokola and other Accra markets have struggled since 2006, not only with low incomes, but with an increasingly hostile public discourse on homosexuality and frequent blackmail attempts. Seeing themselves as ‘modern’ urban, 'Afropolitans' they resist social constraints their elders accepted, deploying IT technologies–netbooks, modems, smartphones to facilitate trade, cash transfers, and to build and maintain social networks. Some replicate nuclear families or include biological family who are accepting; many do not and require alternatives to their family homes. Yet, these young—under age thirty-five—traders and craftswomen live in the margins and are frequent victims who resist through self-protective networks, which provide mutual physical, economic, and social support. This paper examines the multitude of strategies—language, susu, parties, funerals, cell phone chains– they use to construct community, claim social belonging, and disrupt public notions of social deviance.

The family housing sector in urban Ghana: exploring the dynamics of tenure arrangements and the nature of family support networks

In urban West Africa, living rent-free in family-owned houses is common among the low-income population. Drawing on research from Kumasi, Ghana, this paper explores the dynamics of this non-market tenure, in terms of the nature of family support networks/reciprocity and how collective ownership and multiple-occupancy arrangements affect dwelling conditions and the rights derived by tenants. The practice of extending support among members of the kinsfolk, underpinned by traditional values of reciprocity, were found to be stable within the present-day family house. However, the younger generation of residents expressed the view that to support members of the kinsfolk was overburdensome given the prevailing economic hardship and their limited resource capacity. Tenure security across generations was not guaranteed for access-by-privilege residents. Also, shared-ownership meant that for the majority of residents, the family house could not serve as a productive asset from which wealth could be released in response to economic shocks. Most households crowded in single rooms, shared strained housing facilities and lacked privacy. These dynamics could potentially turn preferences away from rent-free family housing in the future, and thus generate a greater need for rental housing in the city. Affordable rental housing development would be required to adequately meet the emerging need.

Fertility and Child Mortality in Urban West Africa: Leveraging geo-referenced data to move beyond the urban/rural dichotomy.

Demographic research in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has long relied on a blunt urban/rural dichotomy that may obscure important inter-urban fertility and mortality differentials. This paper uses Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) geo-referenced data to look beyond the simple urban/rural division by spatially locating survey clusters along an urban continuum and producing estimates of fertility and child mortality by four city size categories in West Africa. Results show a gradient in urban characteristics and demographic outcomes: the largest cities are the most advantaged and smaller cities least advantaged with respect to access to urban amenities, lower fertility and under-5 survival rates. There is a difference in the patterns of fertility and under-five survival across urban categories, with fertility more linearly associated with city size while the only significant distinction for under-5 survival in urban areas is broadly between the larger and smaller cities. Notably, the small urban "satellite cities" that are adjacent to the largest cities have the most favorable outcomes of all categories. Although smaller urban areas have significantly lower fertility and child mortality than rural areas, in some cases this difference is nearly as large between the smallest and largest urban areas. These results are used to argue for the need to give greater consideration to employing an urban continuum in demographic research.

Waste and well-being: a political economy of informal waste management and public policy in urban West Africa

The informal waste management (IWM) sector is often disparaged in Africa and suffers various degrees of social opprobrium from the public owing to the work being perceived as low status. The work i...

Vocational education, on-the-job training, and labour market integration of young workers in urban West Africa

Young people in Africa encounter many difficulties in entering the labour market and in searching for decent and productive jobs. Research on the links between formal education and vocational training and their economic returns are especially crucial in understanding the inadequate demand for their labour. This article presents evidence based on the 1-2-3 Surveys conducted in seven West African countries; the surveys provide a consistent and comparable picture of the urban youth employment situation in these countries. The analysis also indicates that vocational education could be helpful in integrating the formal sector and that it often offers better earnings and better firm performance than general education, especially at higher levels of schooling. Overall, young workers with no formal vocational education and training face poorer working conditions, while those who have had a traditional apprenticeship in a small firm occupy an intermediate position. Finally, on-the-job training plays a crucial role in the informal sector of the West African cities.

Informal–Formal Linkages and Informal Enterprise Performance in Urban West Africa

Employing a unique dataset that covers almost 6000 informal enterprises from six West African urban centers, this paper examines the backward and forward linkages of these enterprises to the formal sector. Authors first provide a descriptive analysis of the existing formal-informal linkages. It turns out that formal backward linkages are much more prevalent than formal forward linkages, and that linkages vary with the degree of informality, occurring less frequently if firms have no ties to the formal sector at all or low capital stocks. In the second step, authors employ a Probit approach to identify major factors associated with the observed backward linkages. The Probit analysis corroborates the importance of the degree of informality for the existence of linkages and shows various enterprise characteristics to be significant determinants as well. Finally, authors analyze whether backward linkages matter for enterprise performance using both Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and four estimations. Authors find a positive and robust impact of backward linkages, whereas the degree of informality of the enterprises in our sample seems to affect firm performance only indirectly through their linkages to the formal sector.

Traditional birthspacing practices and uptake of family planning during the postpartum period in Ouagadougou: qualitative results.

In many low-income countries, postpartum women typically start contraception after the resumption of sexual intercourse or menstruation. Postpartum breast-feeding and abstinence delay these events. Information is needed on women's motivations to rely on these traditional birthspacing practices and their difficulties in starting a contraceptive method after a birth in urban West Africa. In 2012, provider-client interactions and service delivery were observed for a week in seven health facilities in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, and semistructured interviews were conducted with 33 women and 12 men with infants younger than 24 months. Existing postpartum family planning services and women's transition from traditional practices to a family planning method are described. Family planning is scheduled to be delivered at the six-week postpartum checkup, which women rarely attend. No women viewed amenorrhea as protective against pregnancy, and all had started or planned to start a method just before or when they resumed sexual activity. Half of the women abstained for six or more months, and some then either adopted a method they used incorrectly or did not adopt one at all. The main difficulties included providers' requirements for amenorrheic women seeking contraceptives and husbands' refusal to refrain from unprotected sex. The initial postpartum family planning visit should occur right after delivery. Integration of family planning into immunization programs would provide opportunities to reach women who did not adopt a method early in the postpartum period. Provider barriers for amenorrheic women should be ended. Men should be involved in the postpartum family planning consultation.

Chemical Characterization and Source Apportionment of Household Fine Particulate Matter in Rural, Peri-urban, and Urban West Africa

Household air pollution in sub-Saharan Africa and other developing regions is an important cause of disease burden. Little is known about the chemical composition and sources of household air pollution in sub-Saharan Africa, and how they differ between rural and urban homes. We analyzed the chemical composition and sources of fine particles (PM2.5) in household cooking areas of multiple neighborhoods in Accra, Ghana, and in peri-urban (Banjul) and rural (Basse) areas in The Gambia. In Accra, biomass burning accounted for 39-62% of total PM2.5 mass in the cooking area in different neighborhoods; the absolute contributions were 10-45 μg/m(3). Road dust and vehicle emissions comprised 12-33% of PM2.5 mass. Solid waste burning was also a significant contributor to household PM2.5 in a low-income neighborhood but not for those living in better-off areas. In Banjul and Basse, biomass burning was the single dominant source of cooking-area PM2.5, accounting for 74-87% of its total mass; the relative and absolute contributions of biomass smoke to PM2.5 mass were larger in households that used firewood than in those using charcoal, reaching as high as 463 μg/m(3) in Basse homes that used firewood for cooking. Our findings demonstrate the need for policies that enhance access to cleaner fuels in both rural and urban areas, and for controlling traffic emissions in cities in sub-Saharan Africa.

Anthropometric and micronutrient status of school-children in an urban West Africa setting: a cross-sectional study in Dakar (Senegal).

BackgroundUrban areas in West Africa are not immune to undernutrition with recent urbanization and high food prices being important factors. School children often have a poor nutritional status, potentially affecting their health and schooling performance. Yet, generally school children do not benefit from nutrition programs. The objective of the study was to assess the anthropometric and micronutrient status of children from state schools in the Dakar area.MethodsSchool children (n = 604) aged from 5 to 17 y (52.5% girls, 47.5% ≥10 y) were selected through a two-stage random cluster sample of children attending urban primary state schools in the Dakar area (30 schools × 20 children). The prevalence of stunting (height-for-age<−2 z-scores) and thinness (BMI-for-age<−2 z-scores, WHO 2006, and three grades of thinness corresponding to BMI of 18.5, 17.0 and 16.0 kg/m2 in adults) were calculated from weight and height. Hemoglobin, plasma concentrations of ferritin (FER), transferrin receptors (TfR), retinol binding protein (RBP), and zinc, and urinary iodine concentrations were measured. Correction factors were used for FER and RBP in subjects with inflammation determined with C-reactive protein and α1-acid-glycoprotein.Results4.9% of children were stunted, 18.4% were thin, 5.6% had severe thinness (BMI-for-age<−3 z-scores). Only one child had a BMI-for-age>2 z-scores. Prevalence of anemia, iron deficiency and iron deficiency anemia was 14.4%, 39.1% and 10.6% respectively. 3.0% had vitamin A deficiency, 35.9% a marginal vitamin A status, and 25.9% zinc deficiency. Urinary iodine was <50 µg/L in 7.3% of children and ≥200 µg/L in 22.3%. The prevalence of marginal vitamin A, zinc deficiency, high TfR was significantly higher in boys than in girls (P<0.05). Height-for-age and retinol were significantly lower in participants ≥10 y and <10 y respectively.ConclusionUndernutrition, especially thinness, iron and zinc deficiencies in school children in the Dakar area requires special targeted nutrition interventions.

Other Modernisms: Recording Diversity and Communicating History in Urban West Africa

Seminal publications on West African Architecture such as Kulterman’s New Architecture in Africa and the Architectural Review’s New Commonwealth Architecture came to define the African Modern Movement as it was understood internationally. This paper explores the specific context within which this new architecture developed and the actors that helped to shape it. Vaughan–Richards’ Ola–Oluwakitan House and Cubitt’s Elder Dempster Offices are analyzed in terms of their engagement with the socio-cultural context in which they were conceived, the site-specific Modernity of the former contrasting the corporate International Style response of the latter.

The Community Water Jar: Gender and Technology in Guinea

Access to clean water and water transportation systems have been long-standing signifiers of ‘modernity.’ Current statistics of availability to improved water sources suggest that Guineans are living outside of accepted norms for modern life. This paper explores daily life through the lens of water workers, water collection, water sources and water containers in order to understand the day-to-day reality behind these statistics and to explore the meaning of modern life in urban West Africa. My point of entrance parallels this measurement of ‘modernity’ and asks how does water arrive in the homes of West African urban families? For a mid-sized West African city there are various pathways that deliver water to households that all involve water workers and technologies: this paper documents and explores them in order to think critically about avenues of development that aim to improve the flow and access to clean water. The research is based upon participant observation, in-depth interviews and surveys of concessions in a mid-sized West African city.