Perceptions of Power, Progress and Perils on the Accra-Kumasi Road, Ghana
Gabriel Klaeger1
In the town of Kyebi, where I conducted research on the Accra-Kumasi road (akr), residents told me a tale about Potroase, a nearby village jokingly referred to as ‘Airport’:
A man once travelled in his car from Accra to Kumasi in the night. Upon reaching Potroase, the man realised that he was running out of fuel and decided to buy a few gallons. That night, the small village appeared to the traveller like a big city – or like an airport – with plenty of animation, modern lighting as well as a filling station. After paying for his fuel, the man continued his journey only to realise later that he had forgotten to get his change. He decided to collect it on his way back. But when he returned to Potroase, he was surprised to find neither lighting nor any filling station. For some mysterious reason, the place had turned back into what it usually is: a dull and underdeveloped village somewhere in the middle of a major trunk road.
Kyebi’s residents narrated this tale for different reasons. Some simply want-ed to explain why the small village locatwant-ed both sides of the main road had come to be nicknamed ‘Airport’. Others were eager to draw my attention to the powers, such as spirits (sunsum) and witchcraft (bayie) that some of the residents (not necessarily the narrators themselves) assumed were at play in this village. It was possibly these powers that had transformed the village into a modern and lively place that night or that had tricked the traveller’s percep-tion and bereft him of his money. The malicious powers alluded to in the tale further served to interpret the numerous fatal motor accidents that had oc-curred on the Potroase road – a section regularly referred to as ‘death trap’ or
1 I am grateful to Kurt Beck, Julie Soleil Archambault, Richard Fardon, Sophie Mew and Michael Stasik for their comments on earlier versions of this work. Some of the issues presented here were discussed at the African History Seminar (Department of History, soas) in 2008. Doctoral research on which this chapter is based was supported by a Research Student Fellowship (soas) as well as by grants from the Central Research Fund (University
‘death zone’. People also recounted the tale and referred to the road’s dangers to explain why a new road section – a bypass – had recently been built. They assumed that the main purpose of this bypass was so that travellers on the akr would no longer need to pass through the Potroase ‘death trap’. Yet others claimed that the road’s powers and dangers were merely a pretext for building the bypass – a pretext used by those who had promoted the bypass in order to weaken the political and economic position of Kyebi.
The bypass, called Apedwa-Bunso road or simply referred to as ‘new road’
(Map 4.1), was completed a few months before my arrival in Ghana, in early 2006. Most of the akr’s traffic was now diverted away from not only Potroa-se, but also Kyebi, the capital of the Akyem Abuawka kingdom. Among my friends and other Kyebi residents, the ‘removed’ road triggered heated de-bates about the diverse effects this road had on their community. At the cen-tre of the conversations that I followed closely were a series of stories, often in the form of rumours. Similar to the ‘Airport’ tale, they geared towards who and what had promoted, or failed to prevent the building of the new road.
My aim in this chapter is to examine the stories, beliefs and speculations
Map 4.1 The ‘new road’ (Kyebi bypass) on the Accra-Kumasi road
that were brought forward by my informants at the decisive historical mo-ment in the life of this community. I argue that these stories and rumours are social commentaries, namely narrative devices for articulating people’s concerns about the town’s recent detachment from the main akr. Moreover, these narratives evoke particular imageries that ‘make’ the akr – namely as a route for and realm of power, progress and perils. Thus, the stories and imageries provide deep insights into the ways in which Kyebi residents per-ceive and experience the akr as embedded in the wider contexts of politics, development and uncertainty. These perceptions resurface among people who are tangibly concerned with roads and road-building in various parts of the world (see, for instance, Dalakoglou 2010; Harvey 2005; Lamont 2013;
Masquelier 2002), and whose road experiences are framed by a sense of am-bivalence and instability.
Asante Great-roads versus Akyem Authority
Social scientists have described roads as means and contested objects in the struggle for political control and power (Alber 2002, Campbell 2012, Fairhead 1993, Havik 2009, Ispahani 1989, Wilson 2004). The concept of roads as ‘paths of authority’ (Fairhead 1993) was also reiterated among certain people in Kyebi who associated the construction of the new road with a power struggle along ethnic lines. It was rumoured, for example, that the Asantehene – the king of the Asantes with his seat of power in Kumasi – had urged the country’s president at that time, John Agyekum Kufuor, to build the bypass. Of course, Kufuor, an Asante himself and loyal to the Kumasi elite, had complied. But why was the Asantehene so keen on having that road built? Those who be-lieved in the conspiracy theory explained that it was all connected to familiar themes regarding the long-established ‘tribal’ rivalry, even enmity, between the Asantehene and the Okyenhene, the king of the Akyems. The rivalry goes back to past inter-ethnic wars during one of which the Asantehene Osei Tutu was killed by the Akyems in 1717 (Fynn 1973: 64). Allegedly, since then, successive Asante kings have always sought to avoid passing through Akyem territory, or at least through Kyebi, the Akyem capital. The construction of the new road now enables the current Asantehene not only to travel more quickly to Accra, but also to bypass and thereby ignore Kyebi. It could therefore be argued that the realigned akr has an Asante-dominated route again. For Kyebi residents, especially those close to the royal palace, the new road stands for an attempt to symbolically weaken the Okyenhene’s authority over ‘his’ road sections and to contest Akyem’s political position more generally.
Asante Power and the Pre-colonial Great-roads System
My informants who stressed the current ethno-political role of the akr were generally aware, but had little detailed knowledge of how the road has been historically embedded in the often conflictual relationship between Asante and Akyem. A comprehensive account of the road’s connection to historical processes of power and conquest is provided by Ivor Wilks (1975, 1992). Draw-ing mainly from colonial and missionary sources, Wilks describes how, at the beginning of the 19th century, the Asante capital of Kumasi had ‘free and un-obstructed communication with all the leading provinces, by roads or paths, which […] are collectively called great roads’ (Dupuis 1824: xxvii; cited in Wilks 1975: 1).2 In Twi, the ‘great roads’ were called akwan-tempon, from ekwan-pon (great-road) and ten (straight). Wilks identifies eight great-roads (Map 4.2) that include four northbound ‘inland roads’ (Route v–viii) and four southbound
‘great maritime causeways’ (Route i–iv).3 Route v is of particular interest here.
It corresponds to the so-called ‘Akyem route’ (Yarak 1990: 123) that led through the Akyem kingdom to Accra and that strongly affected the course of the Accra- Kumasi motor road built at the beginning of the 20th century (see below).
The great-roads system formed a network with a radial design, organised ac-cording to one central node, namely the Asante capital of Kumasi. The system was designed to achieve two different ends: ‘to promote the flow of trade, and to facilitate the maintenance of political control’ (Wilks 1975: 16).4 Political control is the dominant context in which the great-roads system is placed.
Wilks (1975: 18) stresses the fact that the evolution of the roads system was closely related to the process of political incorporation of conquered territo-ries in Greater Asante, yet that this process was not always a smooth one. He argues that, ‘opposition to the central government’s road building programme was one of the principal features of the syndrome of resistance to its imperial
2 Wilks’ sources were, among others, the British Consul Dupuis (1824), Bowdich (1819) and the Basel missionary Christaller (1881). The geographer Dickson (1961: 33–34) who describes the early southern routes in his treatment of the development of road transport mainly draws from Dupuis’ account.
3 It is further noted that the great-roads system was maintained by the central government in distinction from the smaller and local road networks that were under the responsibility of district authorities (Wilks 1975: 1).
4 The Asante great-roads are depicted as ‘instruments for the maximization of economic ben-efits (trade and production)’ and as ‘instruments for the maximization of political control (government)’ (Wilks 175: 26); see also Yarak (1990: 115–126). Wilks (1975: 13–14) complains that Gould’s (1960) geography of transportation in Ghana shows the development of the communication network in the 20th century, but fails to consider its 19th century precedent.
expansion, just as the closure of existing roads became one of the earliest indi-cations of rebellion’ (Wilks 1975: 25).5
After the eight great-roads had been established in the early 19th century, apparently no further major highways were built. Indeed, some of them fell into disuse with the growth of British interest in the southern provinces of Asante and with the establishment of the Gold Coast Colony and later the Asante protectorate. This meant that Kumasi lost control over sections of the four southern great-roads. To hinder communication between Asante and Gold Coast towns, the British administration even closed some of the routes in times of conflict. The overall great-roads system ceased to exist when Greater Asante was occupied by the French, Germans and British at the end of the 19th century (Wilks 1975: 12–13).
5 Wilks (1992: 175) stresses again that creating the Asante road system involved the negotia-tion of numerous agreements with local chiefs through whose lands the roads were routed;
the establishment of chains of appointed halting-places; and the setting up of control posts manned by the ‘highway-police’ (nkwansrafoɔ) at strategic points.
Map 4.2 The Asante great-roads network in the early 19th century Source: Wilks 1975: 11
Akyem’s Claim to Authority over the Road
One of the instruments of pre-colonial Asante authority and rule was the aforementioned ‘Akyem route’ (Route v). It was at the core of the incorpora-tive process of Akyem into Asante, and it was central to the recurring power struggles between the two kingdoms. For instance, in 1742, following the As-ante invasion and the capture of the Akyem royal households, an agreement to guarantee Asante protection to the Akyem countries and exemption from trib-ute was on the verge of being negotiated. In return, free passage through the Akyem countries to Accra was to be granted to the Asante. But Akyem Abuakwa refused, and the attempt to open a direct road – the later Route v – through Akyem territory to Accra had to be abandoned at this time (Wilks 1975: 25). It was only after the incorporation of Akyem Abuakwa into Greater Asante in 1766 that the route was finally opened (Wilks 1975: 28).6 The road ceased to function as an instrument of Asante domination with the establishment of British colonial government in Accra, the centre of power thus emerging at the other end of the road. After 1957, the Government of Ghana became the new (official) authorities of the former Asante trade route. With their ministries, agencies and political and developmental agendas, they gradually transformed the route into today’s existing motor road.
However, the rumour about the current Asantehene’s influence on the bypass construction shows that people in Kyebi continue to regard the road as charged with ethnic (‘tribal’) and political authority. With respect to the section of the akr that crosses Akyem Abuakwa territory, they claim that ‘it belongs to the Okyenhene’ and that it is under the political and symbolic au-thority of the traditional ruler. To provide supporting evidence, some refer to the historical fact that during the colonial era, one important section of the road (the Apedwa-Kyebi section) was transformed into a motorable state by the then king, Nana Sir Ofori Atta i (see below). A more contemporary piece of evidence, in people’s view, is a huge billboard (Fig. 4.1 ). It was erected some years ago near the akr road in Nsawam-Adoagyiri, where the road crosses the Densu river that marks the boundary between the Akyem and Akuapim king-dom. Its bold letters read ‘Welcome to OKYEMAN – The Kingdom of Akyem Abuakwa’. On the left is a close-up picture of a roaring leopard, which stands for the king of all the animals formerly found in the dense Atiwa forests of Akyem (Kwaebiribirim), which travellers pass through on their way to Kumasi.7
6 See Affrifah (2000: 78–80; 102–103) for the crucial role of trade routes in the pre-colonial Asante-Akyem relations.
7 The leopard as a symbol of power also figures on the widely known state emblem of Okyeman (literally: the state of Akyem).
People add that the Okyenhene’s authority over the road is regularly man-ifested through ritual means. When travelling from his Accra residence to Kyebi for festive occasions, for example, the Okyenhene’s car stops at Nsawam for one of his spokesmen (akyeame) to pour a libation by the roadside. I was told that praying to the deity of the river at the entrance of the kingdom is a way of showing the deity her due respect, but also reconfirms the King’s sovereignty over the land that he is about to enter via the road. As I have shown elsewhere (Klaeger 2013a), such ritual road performances occasionally allow turning the road into a public space for displaying chiefly power and authority.
These symbolic markers and practices nurture people’s view of the road as a path of authority and a realm of power. The idea that the Asantehene may have been able to maintain control over a road section in Akyem – and contest the sovereignty of the Okyenhene, his rival – makes a similar point. Some of my interlocutors reasoned further that the Asantehene’s move must have been motivated by his desire to weaken the Akyem capital both politically and eco-nomically. It is to this and to closely related suspicions held among frustrated Kyebi residents that I now turn.
Figure 4.1 Entering the Akyem kingdom in Nsawam-Adoagyiri Source: G. Klaeger, 2007
(Dis)connecting Pathways to Progress
‘They want to destroy the town’, I often heard people say in Kyebi. They claimed that the ‘new road’ was meant to make the town and its residents ‘suffer’, since it disconnected them from the main road and, most importantly, from the rewards of passing traffic. But whose intention could this have been? While some held the Asantehene responsible (see above), others looked to Accra and blamed the central government that is believed to continue marginalising the Akyem capital politically and economically, as it has done in the past.
The British colonial government, for instance, is remembered to have aban-doned the royal capital following the sensational ‘Kibi murder case’.8 The case arose in 1944 after the sudden disappearance of one of the sub-chiefs to the then Okyenhene shortly after his death. The sub-chief had allegedly been mur-dered in Kyebi during a sacrificial ritual for the King’s burial.9 The murder case generated a lot of attention in the Gold Coast colony and beyond and led to the stigmatisation of the town as backward, uncivilised and even dangerous.
Such stigmatisation is recalled to this day by the popular phrase that ‘in Kyebi, they cut heads’ (Klaeger 2007a: 112). As a consequence of the politicised (and in fact unresolved) murder case, the colonial government excluded the town from some of its investment and development initiatives. The situation did not improve in the years after Ghana’s independence, when one of the town’s most prominent figures and a member of the royal family, the scholar and politician J.B. Danquah, became the main adversary to Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president (Rathbone 2000). The fact that Kyebi was Danquah’s hometown and a stronghold of anti-Nkrumahism and thus anti-government sentiments did not redound to the town’s advantage.
I was nonetheless surprised by people’s claim that the government in power headed by President John Kufuor was taking an anti-Kyebi stance. After all, Ku-fuor’s party, the ruling New Patriotic Party (npp) is strongly supported in Kyebi.
This is linked to party-historical reasons and to the fact that Nana Addo Dank-wa Akufo-Addo, at that time one of the leading npp members and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, is a native of Kyebi. Yet it was precisely the relationship
8 Kibi (occasionally also: Kibbi) was the British notation for Kyebi; both versions are used to-day in written and spoken language.
9 See Rathbone (1989, 1993) for an historical account and the political circumstances of the al-leged ritual murder that occurred in Kyebi in February 1944, after the death of the Okyenhene Nana Sir Ofori Atta i, and that provoked political and media attention beyond the Gold Coast colony.
between Kufuor and Akufo-Addo that was questioned and became the subject of a road-related rumour. It is a well-known fact that both politicians had as-pired to the post of the npp’s presidential candidate in 2000 and 2004 and that Kufuor won the race both times, within the party as well as for the presidential elections. It was suggested that Kufuor had arranged for the new road to be built so as to reaffirm his superiority over Akufo-Addo. His internal rival would be demoralised and humiliated by ‘removing’ the main road, thus weakening the economic activities in his hometown.10 What these allegations hint at is not just political rivalry, but also socio-economic decline as one of the (inten-tional) consequences of infrastructural disconnection. The following sections bring to light how the road is perceived as a pathway to progress and devel-opment and how its absence or abandonment can be disadvantageous to the community affected, a perspective that is explored by several scholars (Harvey 2012; Harvey and Knox 2012; Colombijn 2002).
The Kyebi Road: A History of Neglect and Frustrations
In Kyebi, aspirations for motor road access on economic grounds seem to be nothing new, and neither are the frustrations that town residents currently ex-perience in this respect. This is confirmed by several historical sources such as those retrieved from the Akyem Abuakwa State Archives.11 In a letter dated 1921, a colonial administrator residing in Kyebi reported that the town resi-dents ‘have had many disheartening experiences with this road’.12 He referred to the fact that despite the so-called ‘road revolution’ triggered by the growing availability of motor vehicles in the early 20th century, Kyebi was struggling to obtain, and to maintain, viable motor road access.
The former Akyem trade route was already reported to be in an unsatisfac-tory state around 1850. The geographer Kwamena Dickson (1961) argued that one factor was the rapid growth of the vegetation, another was the apparent
The former Akyem trade route was already reported to be in an unsatisfac-tory state around 1850. The geographer Kwamena Dickson (1961) argued that one factor was the rapid growth of the vegetation, another was the apparent