Courage Dzidula Kpodo with Postbox Ghana

Independence in 1957 brought a new and fervent desire to Ghana to establish itself as a single nation, with a united people. Architecture became a powerful medium to express this newfound identity. Unique ways of building, displaying, and using space can be observed to this day in places like markets, where infrastructure is constantly reinterpreted to meet local aspirations.
Kpodo’s encounter with the research group Postbox Ghana involves extensive research into archival material from Ghana’s past. Thanks to the efforts of often unknown photographers who were active in the 1950s and 1960s, together the group were able to engage with ideas around agency, identity, and memory. In this work, they too became participants in ongoing acts of expression in two spaces: Makola market in Accra and a repurposed, unfinished concrete silo in Tamale. The hope is that this mode of investigation by active participation may point to richer and more complex ways of space-making around identities today.

Technical collaborators
Ibrahim Bokuno, Ekow Quansah, Patrizia Emma Scialpi
With special thanks to
The Slum Studio, Harrison Forman Collection at UWM Libraries, Kwaku Bonsu, Richard Dornor, Halifax Ashrifie, D. K. Acheampong, C. A. Kwashie, Mr. Six, M. T. Adotey, Film Base, Epope Press, Abura Studio, B. P. Studio, Matthew Photos, Guinea Press and the other less-know photographers we are investigating
With the additional support of
Nkrumah Voli-ni, PINPOINT Archive and the African Futures Institute, Alexander Boakye Marful, Pure Akan, Robin Riskin