ARC/GIA: Traditional Building Methods in Southern Ghana

Traditional Building Methods in Southern Ghana

1.0   Traditional Building Methods in Southern Ghana
1.1   The Mountain Villages in the Volta Regions
1.2   Construction of the Ashanti's Fetish House
1.3   Traditional Housing in Kumasi
1.4   Construction Methods in the Forest Villages
1.5 Construction Methods in the Fishing Communities Along the Coast of Ghana
1.6   Foreign Influences
1.7   Summary and Conclusion

The Southern part of Ghana, with different climatic zones, predominantly hot and humid (the coastal savannah, the mountain area of the Volta Region, the moist semi-deciduous forest zone, the transitions forest area, the rain forest and Guinea Savannah, begins roughly to the south of the Volta River and Volta Lake. This conforms also with the chart of the average annual rainfall increases rapidly to the highest amount of above 2.00m in the rain forest area. It decreases again drastically to less than 0.75m in the Accra area – to 0.90m and up to 1.75m in the coastal plain and coastal savannah from Sekondi to Ho (see Map 2).
Agriculture, from subsistence level to larger scale farming, dominates life in the North. The South is an area of diamonds, timber, later cocoa, different types of minerals, as well as agriculture, brought in foreign influence from other Continents into the country. There were two main directions and factors of influence – the already mentioned spread of Islam and with it Moslem penetration from the North with the islamized Dvula traders from Djenne (city state on the Niger) and the Western Sudan in the 15th century who established the Gonja state, and the European penetration form the South which started with the foundation of Elmina in 1482 by the Portuguese.
The influence from the fortified trade posts to the settlements and towns around them along the coast (Fig.53) and from there to the interior, and later the Christian missionary influence, brought certain elements and details into the traditional building methods, like the timber verandah, louvered timber shutters, stone wall construction and walls from sun-dried mud bricks or later burnt bricks. These “imported” styles and methods were fully assimilated into the indigenous forms and ways of building.
In the Southern area of Ghana the traditional timber framework can be found with wattle and daub construction, as well as houses built with the Atakpame method or walls of stones, sun-dried bricks from lateritic soils and burnt bricks. Traditional roofing is thatch from different materials or in a few fishing villages flat mud roofs or roofs from split bamboo. The house plan is rectangular, roofs are quite steeply pitched (except when flat mud roofs) and gable-ended. With increasing outside influence which brought in imported materials and technologies one can trace certain stages of development in the building methods. A shelter of bamboo posts and beams roofed over with thatch or palm leaf fronds is built and used for a covered cooking area and serves at the same time as general storage and for crying corn cobs (Fig.54 and Fig.55). Built as a “lean-to” against the house it serves as an animal shelter. The method of construction with split palm fronds is used for bathrooms (Volta Region) and kitchens. The bathrooms are open shelters, the kitchens timber framework structures with a thatched roof (Fig.56 and Fig.57). Palm leaf fronds as well as bamboo, are also used as fencing material. The Ewe fishermen settled along the Coast use coconut palm fronds, leaves and trunks for their buildings. The next stage is the wattle and daub construction (Fig.58), spread throughout the area, followed by the Atakpame building – from wet mud balls moulded in layers similarly to the wet mud wall construction of the North (Fig.59). This method was chosen in many areas after it was found that the wattle and daub method was more tedious, required more skills and that termites were moreover attacking the timber framework and reinforcement of the wattle and daub wall, causing early deterioration and collapse. Whilst the house built from wattle and daub still has a thatch or shingle roof, the Atakpame house is covered with corrugated iron sheets on a timber sub-structure. Following this method was the construction with sun-dried mud bricks bonded with mud mortar or already cement-sand mortar, and roofed with iron sheets (Fig.60). Stone wall construction has not been common, but can be found in the Akwapim area, the Western Region, Accra and Cape Coast. The last stage is the construction with blocks (from sand and cement). With the introduction of corrugated aluminium and asbestos-cement as roofing sheets this stage is the beginning of a new technology in building construction (Fig.61).
In the rural areas where the farmer or fisherman or craftsman is his own builder (with exception of some areas in the Ashanti and Brong-Ahafo regions) the traditional methods are still used, at the same time modern methods are becoming familiar. The house owner may have one next to the other type of building (from palm fronds, wattle and daub, Atakpame and sun-dried mud bricks) in his compound. The view from above a typical Volta Region village or the “roofscape” of it reveals the types of building methods being used (Fig.62).
The following parts show the traditional ways of construction in some typical areas of this part of the country.

1.1 The Mountain Villages in the Volta Region

As did so many people across the vast African continent the Ewes also migrated from other areas to their present homeland. It is believed that the Akans, the Dahomeyans, the Adas, the Gas and the Ewes settled long ago together on the riverbank of the river Niger near Timbuktu. When the great ancient empire of Songhai broke up about 1594 a large migration began.
The Ewes, after various “intermittent stations”, finally settled in Notsie, a walled city in the present Republic of Togo on the road between Lome and Atakpame. To escape the tyranny of the oppressive ruler Agokoli another migration took place in 1670 in different directions towards the West, resulting finally in the settlement of the Ewe in their present areas of Ghana in the Volta Region.
From Notsie, the walled city, the Ewes knew the method of building solid walls from mud in the “Atakpame” way. The large walls of Notsie, which they managed to break down at one place in order to escape, were built from mud. There are still remains today of this wall in Notsie.
Ewe building methods were described by J. Spieth in “Die Ewe-Staemme” (1906) also as wattle and daub walls with flat mud roofs supported by a timber framework in the Ho area. Early photographs of Akpafu (in the North of the Volta Region) show an interesting detail of thick thatch roofs with a low mono-pitch being supported by posts and beams. The posts are placed outside the house walls so that these are not load-bearing (Fig.64). Spieth describes that the wattle and daub walls were, when completed, plastered by the women on both sides. The men then laid and beat the floors after the walls were finished. It is interesting to note that the same timber species are still being used today for such constructions and building of the roofs in the villages of this region as recorded at the beginning of this century by Spieth. No doubt the traditional building methods of the Ewe people have over the yeas been influenced by the missionaries since the establishment of the Bremen Mission (E.P. Church), the Catholic Church Mission and by the Germans during the colonial days.
HOUSE CONSTRUCTION: FOUNDATIONS
Three types can be recorded, of which the first type normally used for a house constructed with wattle and daub walls, can be described as a rammed raft foundation which at the same time is the floor slab of the structure.
1. RAMMED LATERITE FOUNDATION
The house owner will try to use lateritic gravel or sand for the slab. In most locations of the region this should not be difficult, the soils in the mountain areas are Regosolic Groundwater Laterites with Laterite-Orchrosol Intergrades and Forest Orchrosols, with shale, sandstone, weathered sandstone, phyllite and quartzite underneath or exposed.
This lateritic soil with an added aggregate of sand or gravel is mixed with water and left to set for about two days. A shallow framework of Banana or Plantain stems (cut down after the fruit has been harvested) is laid. The mixed soil is then placed into this area and beaten flat with a wooden implement. At the same time the posts for the roof structure and vertical timber members of the wall are fixed into the ground through the slab, so that the floor slab is finished together with this framework (Fig.65).
2. STONE STRIP FOUNDATION:
In this area stones are available in abundance. They are quite carefully selected in the correct shapes to fit a trench about 500mm deep and 300mm wide after profiles with strings have been erected at the four corners of the building to achieve a more or less straight rectangular layout (Fig.66 and Fig.67). The bonding is done with soft mud and sand mortar (Fig.68) or nowadays with cement-sand mortar.
3. SHALLOW SOLID MUD FOUNDATION
Shallow trenches are dug about 150 to 250mm deep and about 300mm wide. The builders begin the first wall course of the Atakpame wall structure from this level, so that in the true sense of the word one cannot describe this as a foundation any longer, since it is already part of the wall.
WALLS
There are three typical types of wall construction in this area, the wattle and daub wall, the Atakpame wall and the wall from sundried bricks.
1. WATTLE AND DAUB
Holes are dug into the ground at regular intervals after the desired shape of the building has been marked out with the help of pegs and strings. The vertical posts which are to carry the roof structure are inserted into the holes and stabilized with stones rammed around them at the base. This process goes on together with the laying of the floor (foundation) slab. For the timber framework, as well as for the main roof structure the wood of the Fan Palm (Borassus Aethiopum) is used. The Raphia Palm (Raphia Hookeri) wood and the rachis petioles of the leaves are also used for posts and beams. Leaves of this palm tree are used for thatching as well. For the horizontal and vertical members of the framework, which are tied in before the mud is applied, the stems of Thalia Geniculata, a shrub, and split bamboo are used. When the framework has been completed, the roof is built. After this wet moulded mud balls are pressed and worked into the framework of the walls to a thickness of 150 to 200mm. Generally the walls are only smoothened but in some cases rendered with a soft mud and sand mixture. This method of construction allows the builder to complete the walls, when he has the necessary help, in a few days, since he need not wait for each course to set and dry before he lays the next one. The walls also require no cover during rain, as the roof is already completed.
2. ATAKPAME WALLS
The name of this wall building method is associated with the town Atakpame in Togo. Although the method of building with moulded wet mud balls is common in the northern part of Ghana, the “Atakpame” method refers to a rectangular wall which has been properly laid out by the builder with pegs and string. The preparation of the mud is similar to that by the northern people. A pit is dug near the building place, the mud mixed with water, kneaded with bare feet and moulded into balls of about 200mm diameter. Courses of up to 600mm in height are laid, each course covered with palm leaves and allowed to set and dry out gradually before the next course is added. Wet mud cannot bear its own weight and would slump otherwise. Each course is properly leveled out on the top, the sides of the wall are scraped smooth with an old cutlass. Openings for windows and doors are noted and left during construction. The wall thickness is generally about 300mm. After five courses a wall height (excluding the foundation) of approximately 2.50m has been reached. When the last course is still wet, holes are made into it every 600mm at the top through which ropes are drawn for fixing the wall plate of the roof framework. Another way of supporting the roof is by driving short forked sticks into the top of the wall over which the framework is laid and tied. Lintels over doors and window openings are pieces of the Fan Palm. The walls are generally not rendered and the pronounced horizontal lines of the courses are clearly visible. During the survey for this book it was, however, noted that a mixture of soft mud and red clay was used in places externally. It was mixed with water into a thin paste which was applied to the walls with a sponge. Quite often a plaster mix of mud and bitumen has also been used.
3. SUN-DRIED BRICK WALLS:
From a borrow-pit close to the building mud is dug up, mixed with water and kneaded. The mixture is then pressed into wooden casts. The size of a brick is approximately 200 x 90mm. A drying shed is erected with timber posts, beams and a thatched roof. Under this the bricks are left to dry slowly. This may last, depending on the weather, up to two weeks. Only where a proper brick bond is used can long vertical cracks be avoided in the wall during construction. The bricks are laid with mud-sand mortar or a weak cement-sand mortar, where cement is available.
4. OTHER WALLS:
The Ewes in this area very skillfully produce screen walls from split bamboo and split palm fronds for the bathrooms and fences of their compounds.
ROOFS
The traditional thatched roof is a coupled-roof over a rectangular building layout with gable ends. The hipped-end-roof was introduced later. The roof has a pitch of about 45o. For its construction the following materials are used:
Fan Palm (locally called “Agobeam”) – Borassus Aethiopum, resistant to termites and fungi, used for ridge beams, eaves beams, centre posts and wall plates, fronds are used as purlins;
Savannah Bamboo (locally called “Pamplo”) – Oxytenanthera Abyssinica, used for rafters;
Thatch (locally known as “Ebe”) – Imperata Cylindrica, a common grass throughout the savannah areas used for roof thatching;
Tie-ropes (locally known as “Nyido”) – Hippocratea Africana, a woody climber used as a binding material in house and fence building.
The following sketches and photographs explain the sequence of construction (Fig.69, 70, 71, 72).
In most rural areas visited the use of corrugated iron sheets or aluminium sheets has been introduced. Agobeams will still be used as rafters for such roofs, but in most cases, especially when the house has been built with landcrete or sandcrete blocks, properly cut timber members are purchased and used as roof sub-structure.
BATHROOMS AND TOILETS
For the construction of bathrooms in this area a method is being used which closely resembles a conventional soakaway structure (Fig.73). A hole of 1.50m in depth and about 1.00 x 1.50m in size is dug. It is filled with stones of different sizes. The top layer, which at the same time closes the hole consists of large flat stones, serving as the “floor”. This area is then closed off with palm frond screen walls leaving a small opening on one side. The screens are 1.50 to 1.80m high (Fig.74). Toilets are constructed as communal pit latrines with a thatched roof construction over, with low eaves, so that the roof acts as screen at the sides. One enters from the gable ends. The place for the latrine is fenced off and is situated at one end away from the village, in the direction of the prevailing winds (at the northeast end of the village).
WINDOWS AND DOORS
Windows and door frames are fitted into the wall during construction, mainly in the Atakpame and sun-dried brick walls. Properly constructed arches from brick can be found. The windows are wooden jalousie outward opening casement windows, or boarded and paneled window shutters, horizontally pivoted, with or without a fixed jalousie vent above. Doors are ledged, braced and boarded doors or paneled doors. The ironmongery for windows and doors, e.g. hinges, bolts, hasps and latches is manufactured by the local blacksmith in the village. In the Akpafu area and Amedume Hills iron ore can be found. The Ewes knew early the art and craft of blacksmithery.
EXTERNAL WORKS
Certain features are typical for the Ewe mountain villages which are not found in other places, namely, the use of natural stone for landscaping. They are used for retaining and terracing walls (Fig.76), steps, drainage, bridges (Fig.77) and outdoor seats (Fig.78), as can be seen from the illustrations.

1.2 Construction of the Ashanti's Fetish House

From the description of all the early European travelers to Ashanti (Kumasi and other important towns) it is known that all were impressed by the beautiful, clean and comfortable houses, often two-storey, of the ordinary people, quite apart from the large, extensively decorated houses of the more important citizens and the palaces of the kings.
Of those houses nothing remains. But how they were built and what they must have looked like can at least be seen partly in the Ashanti Fetish Houses around Kumasi (Figs. 79, 80, 81). These are small temples designed to house the shrines of the Abosom (lesser gods). Their layout was similarly designed as a courtyard house, with four rectangular structures placed around an open court, linked by screen walls. The Ghana Government recognized the importance of preserving remaining examples of old Ashanti architecture and financed the restoration of quite a number of Fetish Houses in the mid-sixties under the supervision of the Public Works Department of the Ashanti Region for the Ghana Museum and Monuments Board. It was, however, not possible with the limited resources available to rebuild or reconstruct the shrines in the original way, that is with the traditional building methods and materials. But from the existing, restored and new Fetish Houses it is possible to have a glimpse of the past and to gain an understanding of the skill, knowledge and artistic talent of the traditional builder.
FLOOR CONSTRUCTION
The four units around the open court were raised on a solid platform of clay, about 1.00m above the floor level of the courtyard. The open courtyard is today still the focus of activity, although the rooms are now built continuously around the linear yard. In a Fetish House the courtyard is used for religious ceremonies (Fig.82).
The floor was from rammed gravel finished with red clay or mud, which was washed and touched up constantly.
WALLS
A timber framework of vertical posts (of approximately 100 to 150mm and spaced closely around the perimeter of the mud platform) and horizontal members of bamboo or stems of the shrub Babadua (Thalia Geniculata) were tied together with creepers (Hippocratea Africana, in Ashanti, “noto” or Hippocratea Rowlandii, in Ashanti “ntwea”). Over this framework wet mud was applied. In this area with predominant Forest Ochrosols this would have been in most cases clayey lateritic soil, indeed an excellent building material. Wall thickness was about 250mm. The walls were rendered both externally and internally and finished smooth with a wet fine mud plaster of the red soil.
Since three of the building set around the courtyard were open to the yard large beams were necessary to span across the front of these rooms. They were either timber beams plastered with clay or built in form of lattice girders with different designs. The supporting columns were constructed with a centre timber post of about 150mm in diameter to which stakes of smaller diameter were tied. The columns were then plastered with clay to achieve a square shape.
The shrine room normally had open-work screens towards the courtyard with a narrower opening into the room in the centre. These screen walls have cores of flexible Babadua stems tied with creepers when they have a curved design or a straight timber core when they have straight geometrical designs. These cores were then covered carefully with clay all round (Figs. 83).
ROOFS
Of the old, steeply pitched (about 600) roofs none remain. They were described as having a substructure of timber beams (at eaves and ridge) to which bamboo rafters were fixed. Palm-frond purlins were tied to the rafters.
The roof cover was from tightly inter-woven palm leaves (from the Raphia-palm) which were prepared on the ground and then tied into position with quite a large horizontal overlap (see “Materials and their Uses in Construction”, 3.1 Natural Materials, Plants and Woody Plants). The buildings had gable ends.
The restored Fetish Houses have been roofed with corrugated iron sheets at a lower pitch with hipped ends. The original rafters were painted black and polished. The appearance of the materials and finishes used, which complemented each other, must have been very beautiful. The relation between design and materials with its expression of an achieved balanced proportion is lost. The restored or newly built shrines do not have this quality of harmony.
DECORATIONS
Decorations were applied to all platform walls and to the fronts of the walls facing the courtyard and to the fronts of the linking screen walls facing the interior court. Decorations were also applied to the plinths of walls and columns, usually about 1.00m high. They are about 100 to 150mm thick red clay facings, boldly moulded in a number of different designs and motifs with naturalistic, geometrical, stylized character. The decorations on the lower parts of the walls and plinths were finished daily with red clay wash (Fig.86).
The decorations in low relief on the upper parts of the walls and beams are of interlocking geometrical designs or show naturalistic designs. In the next section on “Traditional Housing in Kumasi” it will be described how the reliefs were made. These parts of the walls were finished with a wash of white clay.
Construction work was carried out by skilled artisans under the supervision of master builders who applied the decorations themselves. In some of the villages where Fetish Houses can be found some master builders may still live, but theirs is a skill which is dying out with the moving away of the youth, from the villages to the towns, an occurrence similar to what is happening in the north of the country, where the traditional art and skill of constructing a mud silo may no longer be known in a few years time.

1.3 Traditional Housing in Kumasi

Kumasi of the old days under different Ashanti Kings must have been a beautiful and interesting place. When Bowdich arrived in this town in May, 1817, the Ashanti Kingdom was at the height of its power. He describes in the “Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee” the splendour of the reception and the displayed regalia.
His description of the construction methods of a house are very detailed. The walls were built from wattle and daub. The houses had all gable ends with six main timber poles for supporting the roof ridge and eaves beams which were joined to the gable walls. The roof structure was from bamboo, the roof finish from an interwoven thatch of palm leaves (Raphia palm) tied to palm frond purlins with creepers. The bamboo framework was painted black and polished. The vertical timber poles were plastered with swish in order to appear square. The floors of rammed gravel and red clay were washed daily with a watered-down infusion of the same red soil. With the walls still soft after the puddle mud had been applied to the stakes and wattle work, moulds were formed in patterns producing a profile formed out of thin slips of cane connected with grass. These patterns of moulded relief ornamentation can still be found in the Ashanti Fetish Houses nowadays. Plinths and lower parts of the walls were plastered and finished in red clay. The walls received a plaster and were then, as well as the moulded relief work, finished with whitewash from clay. The thatched roofs were very steeply pitched (Fig.87).
R.A. Freeman writes in “Travels and Life in Ashanti and Jaman” about his stay in Kumasi in 1889 on his way to Bontuku (now in the Republic of Cote d’Ivoire). He saw only the remains of Kumasi after its total destruction by the British in 1874 (Sagrenti War) but was very impressed by the remaining broad, well kept streets, “lined by houses of admirable construction, careful and artistic finishes and of excellent repair”. He noted the departed prosperity and evidence of a superior culture. From his description we know some more details of the reliefs with which the remaining better-class houses were adorned and which were unfortunately not extensively detailed in Bowdich’s notes although during his visit nearly all houses along the main streets of Kumasi must have been a striking sight (Fig.88). Some of the designs are known as “Adinkra” signs from the symbols printed on King Adinkra’s cloth, but form part of the Ashanti symbols of which the Sankofa sign (signifying humility, literally: “Turn back and fetch it”) is a common one. Doors to the houses appear to have been skillfully built as timber paneled doors in timber frames. Windows were small carved wooden shutters.
Lady Fuller’s pen and ink drawings in the book “A Vanished Dynasty-Ashanti” by Sir Francis Fuller (a Chief Commissioner of Ashanti in his time), shows how Kumasi and the surrounding villages appeared in 1920. Although further destruction had been inflicted upon Kumasi with the burning down of Bantama in 1896 and during the Yaa Asantewaa’s uprising in 1900, rebuilding of the town had started almost immediately afterwards under the colonial administration. In June 1896 the Ramseyers, coming from Abetifi, had founded the first Basel Mission station in Kumasi. The town developed rapidly from then onwards into an important commercial centre with cocoa cultivation having been introduced into the area a few years earlier. Foreign influence brought in different building methods. Many of the traditional thatched roofs were replaced with wooden shingle roofs or imported corrugated iron roofing sheets. Walls were built with burnt bricks. A new network of roads linked the different parts of Kumasi. The central market was established in 1925. The town prospered from then onwards and became the country’s most important inland trade centre, with many imposing structures.
Yet in some of the old areas of Kumasi, especially in Bantama, a few old single-storey courtyard houses built in sun-dried mud bricks or with the Atakpame method can still be found among the modern 2 to 3 storey structures from cement-sand blocks (Fig.89). The traditional roofing material of thatch has, however, long been replaced with corrugated iron or aluminium sheets.
From the original decorative relief works on the house walls nothing remains. Through foreign influence certain features have been adopted: Decorated, moulded columns, perforated verandah and balcony walls (Fig.90), moulded projections on the exterior of the walls at floor levels, decorative entrance gates to the compounds and timber jalousie windows (Fig.91)
.
1.4 Construction Methods in the Forest Villages

Similar to the indigenous builder in the northern savannah the farmer and builder in the transitional forest and forest area exploits the natural materials which he can obtain from the soil, from riversides, from the forest. With these materials he has been and still is able to construct buildings which are designed for comfort under tropical conditions, which are reasonably resistant to the elements and destructive forces of the tropics and which, if regularly maintained, can last more than a lifetime.
The rural communities in the forest areas are small communities with a strong traditional social structure and organization. People know one another. Farming is their main occupation, cash crop farming or cocoa farming. The economy is largely non-monetary. Houses are normally self-built.
The traditional building methods are wattle and daub walls with thatch roof (Fig.92 and Fig.93); in many cases these have been replaced with corrugated iron sheets. The buildings are rectangular, placed continuously around an inner courtyard, or courtyards (Fig.94). There is normally only one main entrance into the compound from the outside. In many villages quite skillfully manufactured wooden paneled doors in timber frames and wooden shutter and jalousie windows can be found (Figs.95).
In the Brong-Ahafo and Ashanti Regions quite often the wattle and daub walls have been replaced with walls built in the Atakpame method. The builders are Ewes who have come to these regions in search for employment opportunities. When they built their houses in the Atakpame way, it was soon realized by their neighbours that this construction method was less tedious than the wattle and daub construction. The “Ewe-houses” became very popular. The Ewes found one employment opportunity; they became the “Atakpame Builders” in these regions. By now, up to three generations of Ewes have followed this occupation. They have settled in different places in the regions, but normally returned home every 1½ years for one farming season after which they returned for another “house building tour”. Most of these Ewes came from the area around Atakpame (now in the Republic of Togo). After the independence of Ghana and Togo and different political developments in the two countries, free movement between the countries became somewhat restricted. Some of the builder-settlers became Ghanaian nationals, some returned to their home-country. One can perhaps describe these settlers as the local building contractors who are hired by the local farmer or trader. The interesting thing is that the Atakpame builders are hired for the construction of walls up to roof level only. The owner himself will build the roof (or hire additional labour for this work), render the walls, lay and finish the floor, fix doors and windows. Quite often only the roof will be finished. For the other work time and money may not be available, with the result that early deterioration sets in.
The Atakpame builders use virtually no modern tools for their work: Hoes for digging up the soil (they have “an eye” for good quality soil), their feet for kneading the mud mixed with water, their hands for forming the wet mud balls and for moulding the different layers, their eyes and sometimes pegs and strings for checking the alignment, a cutlass for scraping the walls smooth and leaving proper rectangular openings for windows and doors.
Both wattle and daub and Atakpame building methods have already been described in detail in foregoing chapters.
In some of the forest villages the Atakpame builder will build up a plinth of stones at the foot of the wall and a system of gutters with stone aprons around the house to check erosion. Where this is not done the results are early deterioration, a common sight in many villages with houses from wattle and daub walls. In the forest zone with average annual rainfalls of 1.50m to above 2.00m, protection of the external walls and the foot of the walls is very important.
Sun-dried brick construction is also known and preferred in some areas. Neat horizontal and vertical alignment is achieved with proper bonding. Windows and doorframes are fitted straightaway during construction. Mortar joints (from mud mortar) also achieve a solid construction. Finished walls are sometimes mud-washed or rendered with a soft mud mixture internally.
The floors are from rammed soil. In compounds where the walls are properly rendered and painted, the floors are normally well constructed with a layer of stones and gravel first, well compacted, and a screed on top, of sand and mud (sometimes mixed with bitumen, often with cement).

1.5 Construction Methods in the Fishing Communities Along the Coast of Ghana

The fishermen of the Gold Coast and Ghana have never known borders. The Anlos (Ewes from Angola, Keta area) have migrated up the coast to Gambia and down to Zaire. Within Ghana they have established settlements outside their home area from Tema, Accra, Winneba to Half Assini. The Efutus and Fantes have also moved to the shores of the Ewes, when the fish they catch moves eastwards. The Ghanaian fishermen with their dug-out canoes with or without outboard motors are expert and courageous fishermen. When they “move with the fish”, they do not interfere with the traditions of the people in whose areas they settle temporarily, they respect the local gods of their new homes. But they bring with them their building methods.
The coastal climate is humid with a steady South-South-westerly sea breeze. Houses are constructed to permit a free flow of air through the entire building. The roofs are built with thatch, in many areas an air space is provided underneath and a ceiling constructed of woven mats and mud. This and wide overhangs of the roof and covered verandahs achieve a marked reduction of solar heat transmission (Fig.105 and Fig.106). Bedrooms of the houses are concentrated on the windward side, the cooking area etc. on the leeward.
1. BUILDING OF THE ANLOS
The Anlos do not only fish in the sea, they also fish in the large Keta Lagoon. Along the lagoon they have also started shallot and cash crop farming. In the villages here, for example in Anyako, houses built with wattle and daub and in monolithic mud (Atakpame) can be found next to those built completely in thatch construction. It is this method of building (in Ewe “Klobaxotutu”) which is used by the migrant Anlo fishermen when they build their houses along the coast, where they settle temporarily (Fig.107).
The thatch houses have a timber frame structure of posts and beams from Fan palm trees and split trunks of Coconut palm trees (Borassus Aethiopum, “Agoti” in Ewe and Cocos Nucifera, “Neti” in Ewe), purlins of mangroves or coconut leaf fronds. The walls are made from coconut palm leaves plaited in the early morning hours when the dew makes the leaves soft. The single unit is approximately 3.00m long by 2.30m wide.
The main posts are dug and wedged into the ground 350mm deep. These posts have forked top ends to receive the eaves and ridge beams. Intermittent posts are then added. Rafters and purlins are fixed. Thatch is prepared from Imperata Cylindrica. The grass is cut and left to dry for a few days and tied up in bundles afterwards. From these the roof cover is plaited into mats of about 1.80m in length. Thatch is laid in layers from the eaves upwards with two layers “head downwards” under the eaves layer for additional thickness, all other layers are laid “head upwards”. The wall mats are then fixed to the framework with horizontal battens tied over coconut leaf fronds. At the bottom of the wall a small trench is dug of 150mm depth and nearly filled with ash. The plaited wall panels are pushed down into the ash when they are fixed to the framework. The trench is afterwards filled with sand. The horizontal battens are either fixed over the mats from the outside or inside, according to taste, or mats are tied to the framework from both sides so as to create a “cavity wall”.
This wall structure allows a fair amount of ventilation to pass through. In most cases therefore these houses are without window openings. A door opening which can be covered with a thick woven grass mat (these are sometimes also used for the walls) is left between two of the posts.
The floor is made from a slab of 150mm thick wet clay and beaten flat. The sand has been removed to this depth and a layer of ash sprinkled on the ground before the wet mud is laid.

2. BUILDINGS OF THE FANTES

The traditional way of construction predominant along the coast is the timber frame structure with mud infill (wattle and daub). Among the Fantes, especially around Anomabu, rammed wet mud structures, often two-storey high with steeply pitched hipped roofs of thatch from coconut palm leaves are preferred. The walls are quite obviously contains much early European influence which has modified the traditional indigenous Fante building methods.
Anomabu was an important port and trading centre in the 18th century with the large English (second) fort completed in 1770. Cape Coast and Elmina contain more foreign influenced elements which will be detailed in the next chapter. But some of these identified elements are common throughout Fante coastal villages. Thatch roofs are, however, rapidly vanishing from these villages and are being replaced by corrugated iron sheets or, more recently by corrugated aluminium sheets.
Windows (generally small) and doors are simple wooden paneled shutters or louvered jalousie and paneled doors. Houses are rendered in mud-sand plaster in and outside with moulded architraves to doors and windows.
Under the pitched roof a ceiling is usually built in the same way as the ceiling to the upper floor, with the beams built into the wall.
Only 5km to the west of Anomabu is Biriwa, a small fishing village. Here one finds houses built with walls from monolithic mud or wattle and daub usually rendered on both sides, but with flat mud roofs, quite unusual for this area (Fig.108). Some more of these roofs can be found in Cape Coast, but they are concealed underneath subsequently added pitched roofs from corrugated iron sheets. It is said that the Fantes migrated to the coast from the savannah country to the north of the forest belt and brought this building method with them. Also in Biriwa one finds the original mud roof in many cases concealed beneath a pitched corrugated iron roof (Fig.109 and Fig.110). The flat mud roof was built in a similar way to that described in the part on “Construction Methods in the Northwest of Ghana”. The beams carrying the roof are built into the walls. These therefore are load-bearing. The surface of the mud roofs is laid to fall towards rainwater spouts. Low parapet walls are built around the roof.
The main house, situated north-south, is single-storey with a row of rooms, normally three, with ancillary buildings as stores, kitchens, bathrooms arranged loosely around, with fish-smoking ovens in between. There are no clearly defined compounds. This arrangement makes full use of the sea breeze.

1.6 Foreign Influences

1. INFLUENCES OF THE EUROPEAN TRADING POSTS ALONG THE COAST
The Portuguese were the first Europeans to touch the Gold Coast in 1471. They recognized the great economic potential of the area and built a substantial castle (Sao Jorge da Mina) in 1482. The town of Elmina grew up to the west of the castle and was raised to the status of a city in 1486 with a defence wall around. The Portuguese also established a number of other trading posts along the Coast. Their influence on indigenous building methods can be witnessed in the Ahanta and Fante villages with their rectangular cottages, thick mud walls or sundried mud brick walls, steep pitched, thick thatched roofs, and moulded or white-painted architraves to doors and windows along the coast (Fig.111).
By the middle of the 17th century the Portuguese had been expelled from the Coast by the Dutch. The French and English were already established on the Gold Coast and by the end of the 17th century the Danes and Bradenburgers also joined the establishment of trading posts with the building of trade forts or castles. All these forts attracted settlements of the native people under their walls. The size of these settlements were dependent on the trade in the area. The booming slave trade in the 18th century made towns like Elmina, Cape Coast, Anomabu and Accra prosperous, other towns became important service centres supplying different areas along the coast and prospered likewise. European traders married into local chiefs’ or merchants’ families. Their families soon became the entrepreneurs of the area.
Building materials for the houses of these rich merchants were imported – burnt bricks, cast iron columns and balcony brackets, iron roofing sheets, Canadian pine etc.
Some of the early single or 2-storey houses in Elmina (Fig.112) of which a number still exist, though generally in a very bad condition of maintenance, were built with walls from rabble stone or stone, clearly influenced by the building methods used for the construction of the forts, which were built from stone and bricks (carried as ballast to the Coast in the ships). Window and door openings were often semi-circular arched, with jalousied shutter windows (top-hung outward opening) and wooden paneled doors. Sometimes the arched openings had brick dressings.
Most of the houses, similar to the structure of the forts and castles had flat roofs paved in tarras. Subsequently these were roofed over with low-pitched roofs of corrugated metal sheets or flat asbestos tiles.
An early house-type for Danish civil servants from the middle of the 19th Century in Christianborg, Accra, introduced the first floor verandahs running the whole of the building at both front and rear. The houses were two-storey with the living accommodation upstairs. The verandahs were built of wood supported by stone columns.
This type of construction was adopted very quickly by the more prosperous Africans in the Danish colony, especially in the Akwapim area, where the Danish tried to establish plantations, and on the plains to the south and east of it.
It is interesting to read how DR. P.E. Isert, who served the Danish Guinea Company in 1783, in a letter he wrote to his father, described the houses he saw during his first visit to the Akwapim Hills in 1786:
“The houses of the mountain peoples are square built with beams, the intervals between which they fill with clay. Inside they are kept very neat. The floor is scrubbed each day with red earth, which gives a good appearance…”
The indigenous building methods in the Akwapim area were not much different from those elsewhere in the forest and transitional forest zones. The houses were rectangular gable-roofed with thatch.
Dr. Isert’s own house near Akropong was the first stone building recorded in Akwapim. Of this building nothing remains today. A plantation building at Dakobi on the lower slopes of the Akwapim Hills, built at the same time was described after measuring up its ruins in 1956 as a two-storey rectangular structure with a flat roof.

2. INFLUENCE OF THE BASEL MISSION

In 1835 Andreas Riis laid the foundation of the Basel Mission Church in Akropong. The influence of the Basel Mission in Akwapim and the South of Ghana has been significant. The name of Riis is connected with the buildings the missionaries put up in the area. These buildings were built of stone and roofed with shingles. Despite opposition from the local fetish priests against the use of stone and Odum timber in building (the Odum tree- Chlorophora Excelsa is regarded as a sacred tree) this construction method was adopted by the people. Clear traces of this can still be seen at Akropong, Larteh and Mampong (Figs.113, 114, 115). Moreover the Basel missionaries established training workshops where they taught local artisans new skills in masonry, joinery and blacksmithing.
With the introduction of cocoa farming a prosperous period started in the Akwapim area. 2-storey, stately stone houses became a familiar feature of several Akwapim towns.
The walls of these and the mission houses were built from the local excellent granite stone, at first with dry courses without mortar. Later, when cement was introduced, walls were plastered. The designs were simple.
The houses were two-storey, with a room-deep core and verandahs surrounding the whole building at first floor level, constructed entirely of timber.
The Anti House in Mampong was built at the beginning of the 20th century between 1910 and 1915 by a rich cocoa farmer, Isaac Kofi Anti of Mampong. The foundation and walls were built from stone. All timber structures (roof substructures and floor beams) were sawn from Odum, Boarding and verandah balusters were from Pine wood, ordered through the Basel Mission and imported from abroad (Fig.117). Roofing material consisted of imported slates.
This house, which was a prominent structure on the outskirts of Mampong and reflected the legacy of a successful early cocoa farmer and was at the same time a reminder of the former prosperity cocoa farming in the early days brought to the towns on the Akwapim Ridge, is now nearly collapsed. Only a few parts of the walls are still standing.
In other areas with Basel Mission influence the core walls were also built of solid mud or bricks. The verandah was supported with stone or stucco faced brick columns. For many of the early British colonial buildings cast iron columns were used. The timber balcony balusters were elaborately treated, the eaves of the hipped-end roofs had fretwork fascias. Although the Akwapim area, as already mentioned, is particularly rich in examples of such buildings, by the end of the 19th century this building type had widely been adopted by other missions, by the colonial government and the more prosperous people in other towns in the south (Fig.118,119,120 to 122). It was used for schools, hospitals, etc. A single storey version raised above the ground approximately 1 to 1.50m on stubby columns had completely closed verandahs around with mosquito-screens. The Cantonment Residential Area in Accra still has many examples occupied by civil servants. The Ridge Hospital in Accra is another example (Fig.123).

1.7 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
From the Nzima pile dwellings of Nzulezo in the Unvalye Lagoon in the far West of Ghana near the border with the Republic of Ivory Coast, to the Fetish Houses in Ashanti, the coastal towns built up near former European trading posts, forts and castles, the fishing and forest villages, the Ewe villages in the hills of the Volta Region, to the Basel Mission influenced buildings in the South of Ghana, the indigenous people used building methods and created an architecture which grew out of the soil, which received its form through the geology, topography and climate of the area and which was influenced by the social and historical development of this part of the country. Throughout the rural areas and the fishing communities along the coast the traditional construction methods are still used. With new skills and introduction of materials like burnt bricks, cement, corrugated iron, aluminium and cement-asbestos sheets new variants in plan form appeared, yet were more or less still based on the old concept of the courtyard or compound house to provide shelter for the extended family.

However, with an economy which has rapidly declined since the oil crisis in 1973 (which has badly affected many developing countries and especially Ghana), and a dependency on fluctuating world prices for main exports – cocoa, gold, diamonds, timber, bauxite etc. – foreign currency available for the importation of materials used in the building industry is very limited. The local factories producing building materials for which they need varying percentages of imported raw materials, do not produce to full capacity. Some of them manufacture to only 25 to 30% of their normal capacity. Yet the population is growing and the demand for shelter is increasing.

It is therefore important to fully explore and utilize all available local building materials as well as possible production of materials for construction from industrial and agricultural wastes. Doing this, it is necessary to know traditional technologies with which some of these materials have been used in the past.It is also necessary examine possibilities of introducing improved technologies which will assist in constructing low-cost, yet more durable buildings, suitable for tropical conditions based on the concept of the traditional way of life of their occupants.

At the same time this increased use of locally available and produced building materials for the construction of government financed public buildings, from housing, schools, colleges to health centres, clinics and hospitals requires a change of attitude on the side of the designer and the client. It is hoped that the educational process leading to this can be positively influenced by the contents of this article.

Article and illustrations by Hannah Schreckenbach (extracted from her book "Construction Technology for a Developing Country", GTZ publications, 1983, pp 21-72 http://www.gtz.de/basin )

WELCOME TO GHANA INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS & ARCHITECTS REGISTRATION COUNCIL OF GHANA.