Ghana Towns: Tema
Tema is the port of the capital city Accra, newly constructed in the 1960s by Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah. Until the opening of Tema port, all of Ghana’s international trade passed through the remote port of Takoradi, two hundred and forty kilometres away in the Western Region. Nkrumah wanted to exercise closer control over importation and the export of Ghana’s most valuable commodity, cocoa, so the creation of a new port at Tema became a priority for his administration. Becoming the centre of a great deal of business and economic activity, Tema grew rapidly to become Ghana’s fourth largest city after Accra, Kumasi and Tamale.
To ensure rapid communications between the capital and the new port, Kwame Nkrumah built Ghana’s only motorway, a thirty kilometre dash along the coast to the east. Long before one exits the motorway, Tema’s greatest landmark comes into view, four enormous concrete silos built to store Ghana’s annual output of cocoa. The idea behind the silos was the manipulation of the world price of cocoa; holding in store when the price was low and releasing stock when the price was high. However the silos were never used, and are said to be full of rain water. They stand like the pyramids of Giza as a monument to a long passed pharaoh.
Tema was said to have been planned by the man who designed the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. If this is true, one must be sorry for the citizens of Pakistan. Tema is made up of about a dozen communities, each with a number, and consisting of rows of low-cost houses designed for renting by the port workers of the Nkrumah era. Community One, the centre of the city, provided space for small branches of the leading banks, a post office, a cathedral, two petrol filling stations and a general market. Most of the other communities are mainly residential but central markets and many small commercial businesses have sprung up in and between the houses over the years.
The city is governed by the Tema Development Committee (TDC) which enjoys rather greater powers than most local administrations. The small workers’ houses in Tema started to be bought up by wealthy citizens who re-let them at higher rents or extended and improved them for their own use. This led to the TDC establishing a One-Man, One-House Committee to try to enforce the original concept of affordable houses for low-paid workers. In the 1980s, the effort was only marginally successful and rents remained well above what most workers could afford. Many of the upgraded houses were occupied by businessmen and successful traders and these smart residences with walled gardens and pebble-dashed walls stood amidst decaying, unpainted relics still held by the aging residue of Nkrumah’s pioneers.
By the late 1980s the population of Tema had grown to about one hundred thousand. On the other side of the motorway, a shanty town had grown up around the village of Ashiaman where the new low-paid workers made their homes. Added together, the population of the two settlements was possibly equal to the one hundred and forty thousand claimed by Ghana’s third city, Tamale. Apart from the motorway, the streets of Tema were congested with traffic, as taxis and trotros competed for passage with the enormous articulated trucks serving the port. The markets and commercial areas were full of bustling pedestrians and overall it was seen that Tema was probable the most vibrant economic centre in the country.
Lying due south of Greenwich, east of London, England, Tema was originally adorned by a large luxury hotel called the Meridian. Plagued with technical troubles and few clients, the Meridian fell into decay and was partially revived in the 1990s as an office block. The natural environment of Tema tended to reflect the generally run-down appearance of the hotel and the city, as it lies in a small area of curiously low rainfall and much or the land is barren scrubland.
Those who have lived in Nkrumah’s new city both love it and hate it. There is little to admire about its appearance or environs and it failed to control the cocoa market or to provide a new life for grassroots workers. It is a difficult place to move around in; the traffic is congested and slow, and its expansive layout demands walking long distances. Yet, much of Nkrumah’s dream was realised. The port has succeeded in providing Ghana with a second modern port that maintains a high level of activity and Tema has become a major commercial centre that must add substantially to the national gross domestic product. Finally, its polyglot population, drawn from all parts of Ghana, is as friendly and welcoming as their communities of origin.
