Imagining Architecture: The Structure of Nationalism in Accra, Ghana

The architecture of the capital city of Ghana in the independence era suggests an identification between architecture and a consciously managed national ideal. This article examines the history of architecture and spatial organization in Accra, focusing upon the symbiosis between British administrative and local commercial interests and on British colonial efforts to segregate and regulate architectural space. It also explores the Nkrumah administration's reconfiguration of colonial architectural objectives and argues that the administration advanced—in its embrace of architectural modernity and reconceptualization of the urban environment—a distinctive notion of the "nation."