Accra Archive

14/11/2025

We mourn the loss of Squadron Leader Ivy Naa Ayorkor Tetteh, a friend of Accra Archive. The Accra Archive team extends our sincerest condolences to Squadron Leader Ivy Naa Ayorkor Tetteh’s family and friends.

May she rest in perfect peace.

We mourn the loss of Squadron Leader Ivy Naa Ayorkor Tetteh (1987 - 2025), a friend of Accra Archive.

14/02/2022

Newlyweds in the Gold Coast. 1934.

23/06/2021

New on the Accra Archive Blog!

1. The Intimacies of Family Legacies in Ghana By Girish Daswani

2. What’s in a (Ga) Name? By Lawrencia Amartey

07/06/2021

Congratulations to the Winners of the imagining Early Accra Competition!!!!

All winners listed below, and the link to the full story is up in the bio of our profile.

Adult Category
1st Place: Akua Serwaa Amankwah, with 'Transcendence', a short story accompanied with an audio narration.

2nd Place: Fauziyatu Moro, with 'The Sugar Babies in the Accra Town Hall', a non-fiction essay based on original, historical research.

3rd Place: Akorfa Dawson, with 'A Time To Be Stubborn', a short fiction piece.

Under-16 Category
1st Place: Chief Asamoah, with 'The Lighthouse', acrylic painting.

1st Place: Ewurabena Barnes, with 'The Sacrifice' bas-relief sculpture

2nd Place: Baffour Akoto Oppong, with 'Independence', mixed media piece

3rd Place: Diane-Shanelle Sesinam Kwakuyi, with 'The Beauty of Accra And Its Hope', sculpture

4th Place: Jude Kwesi Owusu-Ansah, with 'Cathedral Clinic', coloured pencil drawing

4th Place: Joel Appiah, with 'Freedom and Justice', sculpture

4th Place: Papa Kwakyie, with 'The Lighthouse', sculpture

Honorable Mentions
Ama Benewaa Tawiah, with 'Big Boresa Saves the Day'

Bashir Mustapha, Jessica Bruce, and Michelle Boafo, with 'The Noble Expedition'

Mr Samuel Hemans, Art Tutor of the Corpus Christi Catholic Basic School

26/05/2021

New on the blog (link in bio):
1. The Evolution of Adedainkpo, Old Accra by
2. Ga Names in Colonial Records by Elton Kwei.

07/03/2021

Calling: all creatives (artists, poets, architects, performers, storytellers and more) in Ghana!

We're so very excited to announce the !
Create something inspired by archives for a chance to win!

For more details, see link in bio.

22/02/2021

We’re looking for enthusiastic and creative interns to join our team as Multimedia content creators, Research Assistants, and/or Writers!

For more information, or to apply click on the link in our bio.

01/01/2021

Afi ooo Afi!
Happy New Year! Download a free 2021 Ga - English Calendar from ( link in bio).

- Featuring and Images from

- Months of the year in the Ga Language with Pronunciation guides, and English Translations.

17/12/2020

Some of the ’s socially-distanced team was interviewed for about our project. Link in bio
“architecture and archival material – have come together once again in an undertaking named building early Accra (bEA) – which is endeavouring to recover and digitise an endangered architectural archive of Ghana’s capital, from over a century ago.” -

31/05/2020

The Gold Coast (now Korle Bu Teaching) Hospital , Accra, 1941

Photos by the West African Photographic Service.

The Korle Bu Teaching Hospital was built as the "Gold Coast Hospital in 1923. It was the most advanced hospital in the region, and a model hospital intended as a symbol of modernity for Ghana/ Gold Coast. At the time of its opening it was so understaffed that several people were hired rapidly, sometimes even without a Primary School Certificate. Nurses in particular were in high demand, and young Ga women were actively recruited even though it did not pay well.

Though working at the hospital was an opportunity for professional and social advancement for the Africans in the Gold Coast, it operated on patriarchal and racial hierarchies, and thus positions of authority were always held by male, and white workers, even years after Ghana’s independence in 1957. Among the first African doctors appointed to work there were A-F Renner-Dove, G.T. Hammond, and E Tagoe. The hospital was expanded in 1960 under Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana. The "Körle Bu" is derived from the Ga place name denoting “land sloping down to the sacred lagoon of the goddess Körle”.
(Sources: Florence Nkwam, Jonathan Roberts)
@ Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital

27/05/2020

Accra, 1900s. An aerial view of the city centre. Showing Trinity Church (now Trinity Cathedral) The Book Depot (see previous post) and the bank that became Standard Chartered Bank.

Accra has been Ghana’s capital since 1877 when it was transferred from Cape Coast. Prior to this, it was established as part of Ga State and was made up of a number of Ga settlements, many of them now named suburbs of present-day Accra. It rapidly became an important trading centre in the transatlantic slave trade when various European traders settled in the city.

The first fort was established by Portuguese traders and mercenaries in 1578. Subsequently Danish, Dutch, German, Swiss, British traders, soldiers, mercenaries and missionaries as well as other smaller European groups had forts and holding companies in the city, engaging in the trade of enslaved human beings, and also commodities such as gold, alcohol and fabric.

After a period of prolonged struggle and deliberation, the British succeeded in taking over the city and the colony and eventually established a municipal council in 1898 to control the affairs of the town.