Carlien Ewusiwah Donkor, Costanza Franceschini and Koffi Nomedji will present their research in a short seminar.
Configuring coastal erosion in Togo
by Koffi Nomedji (Duke University)
In June 2017, some neighborhoods of the small Togolese coastal town of Aneho were flooded by seawater. For the past few decades, the sea has been encroaching on the land; however, this time, the waves reached a vital transnational road connecting five major West African port cities. The threat to the regional economy has triggered a series of state technocratic responses that ignore local communities’ interactions with the coastal environment. My work explores the possible collaboration between local ontology and science-based policymaking in producing a relevant response to coastal erosion.
Growing up differently: the port as a cause of unequal treatment given to twin-cities
by Carlien Donkor (TU Delft)
It is common notion that infrastructural projects could facilitate development of communities. What factors drive infrastructural adjustments? Sekondi-Takoradi was a coastal twin city planned to suit the needs of trade in a colonial era. However, unequal attention has been given to Sekondi due to the strategic location of the port in Takoradi itself. Takoradi has, since the discovery of oil in 2007, been a hotspot for new foreign presence. And yet still, Sekondi remains in the background of the narrative. This presentation highlights how infrastructural development led to the disjointed growth of two cities initially planned as one.
Ghana Coastal Fishing Harbours Project: (Chinese) Port Assemblages and their Impact on Local Communities
by Costanza Franceschini (University of Milano-Bicocca)The Ghana’s Coastal Fishing Harbours Project is a Chinese-financed infrastructure project involving twelve communities along the Ghanaian coast. It started in 2006 and, after numerous travails, it finally saw the light in July 2019, when President Nana Akufo-Addo cut sod in one of the communities involved. The project is almost completed - the official end date has been set for the 27th of December 2022 – but its travails are far from over. Through the narration of the project and the main issues related to it, the goal is on the one hand to question the Chineseness of the project, showing how global infrastructure assemblages shape these types of projects, and, on the other hand, to critically address the issue of development and/in local communities.
Every month at our PortCityFutures team meeting, one of our members or a guest hosts a short presentation about their current or past research. If you want to attend the presentations or present at one of our meetings yourself, please contact us: info@portcityfutures.nl