What housing does: changes in an Accra community

This paper is concerned with change in a long-settled migrant community in Accra, Ghana, and specifically with the cultural and spatial components in the home. The settlement was established in 1912, primarily for the Hausa people. Houses were equipped with an entry hut for the man of the house and his male friends, and the segregated women's quarters for the houseowner's wives, both facilitating sheltering adult women from the gaze of unrelated adult men. Over the years, houses have been built without these features, and dwellings no longer contain only the members of a family. Looking at the evolution of housing in the community of Sabon Zongo, one sees the conflation of Hausa vernacular, southern Ghanaian traditions and western influence. -Author