Michael Stasik

Market Men and Station Women: Changing Significations of Gendered Space in Accra, Ghana

ABSTRACT It is impossible to understand the gendered relation between women and public space without taking into account its other, that is, male engagements with and in space. Our joint paper contrasts the public spaces of a market and a bus station in central Accra, Ghana. While the former is historically associated with female entrepreneurship, masculinity is deeply inscribed in the activities defining the latter. However, recent developments gradually undermine these gendered divides. By focusing on interpersonal claims to entrepreneurial places in the two locations, we illustrate how the configurations and co-constructions of gender and space are exposed to on-going, often subtle shifts, which are impelled by dialectically grounded transformations of quotidian spatial practices and social relations. Expanding upon the notion of viri–/uxorilocality, we explore shifts in the gendered strategies of newcomers establishing their presence in the two spaces and the extent to which these practices may alter gendered spatial significations.

Contingent constellations: African urban complexity seen through the workings of a Ghanaian bus station

In this article, I explore the intricate relationship between regulation and contingency in processes of urban economic organisation by focusing on the workings of a central bus station in Accra, Ghana. After introducing the position of the station in Ghana’s urban economy and transport infrastructure, I set out its internal regulative arrangements in relation to larger socio-economic and political constellations the practices of the station workers are contingent upon. Next, I turn the analysis around and describe the ways in which people accommodate themselves within, exploit and thereby co-produce emergent contingencies. The focus on the station, I suggest, offers a window into the complex constituents of niche economic practices that prevail in many spheres of African cities and allows a nuanced reflection on the incongruous and undetermined dynamics of everyday urban ‘becomings.’

Rhythm, Resonance and Kinaesthetic Enskilment in a Ghanaian Bus Station

ABSTRACT In this article, I explore the workings of a long-distance bus station in Accra, Ghana, by focusing on the relationship between rhythm and practice. In Accras station, departures do not follow pre-designated scripts of clock-time but are timed collectively by the inflow of passengers. These inflows follow diverse rhythmic temporalities co-composed in Accra and in the destinations served from the station. I show that by attending to the rhythmicity of activities in the yard, the station dwellers accommodate motional inputs that take shape hundreds of kilometres away. They do so by way of kinaesthetic enskilment, hence a tacit way of attuning to movements and rhythms. This link between rhythmanalysis and the anthropology of the senses, I suggest, offers a useful conceptual gateway for understanding West African practices of road travel.

Real love versus real life: youth, music and utopia in Freetown, Sierra Leone

ABSTRACT The most popular music among youths in Sierra Leones capital Freetown is music dealing with love. While the music, which is mainly of foreign origin, evokes idealized images of ‘real love’, the real-life relationships of its young audiences are characterized by chronic states of emotional uncertainty and dissatisfaction. Economic disparities lead to an increasing monetization of young peoples relationships, driving them either into a fragile flux of multiple partners or out of intimate engagements altogether. Taking this ‘dissonance’ between sonic representations and social relations as a point of departure, in this article I explore the ways in which young Freetonians position themselves at the juncture of desire and reality. After an introduction to Freetowns contemporary music scene, I juxtapose various life and love stories of youths with the fantasies they invest in ‘love music’. In so doing, I discuss the complex relationships between affect, exchange, deprivation and the strictures involved in attaining social adulthood. Drawing on the notion of utopia – denoting a desired yet unattainable state – I argue that it is within the experiential gap between the consumption of a representation and the desire to live (up to) that representation that Freetowns youths rework their horizons of possibilities. RÉSUMÉ La musique la plus populaire chez les jeunes de Freetown, la capitale du Sierra Leone, est celle qui parle d’amour. Alors que cette musique essentiellement d’origine étrangère évoque des images idéalisées de « l’amour vrai », les relations que vit son jeune public au quotidien sont caractérisées par des états chroniques d’incertitude et d’insatisfaction affectives. Les disparités économiques conduisent à une monétisation croissante des relations des jeunes, qui les entraîne dans un flux fragile de partenaires multiples ou les laisse en dehors de tout rapport intime. Prenant comme point de départ cette « dissonance » entre représentations soniques et rapports sociaux, cet article explore la manière dont les jeunes de Freetown se positionnent à la charnière entre le désir et la réalité. Après avoir présenté la scène musicale contemporaine de Freetown, l’auteur juxtapose des histoires de vie et d’amour de jeunes aux fantasmes qu’ils investissent dans la « musique d’amour ». Ce faisant, il débat des relations complexes entre l’affect, l’échange, la privation et les restrictions qu’implique l’expérience d’atteindre l’état adulte social. S’appuyant sur la notion d’utopie, qui dénote un état inaccessible pourtant désiré, l’auteur soutient que c’est dans la fracture expérientielle entre la consommation d’une représentation et le désir de vivre (à la hauteur de) cette représentation que les jeunes de Freetown reforgent leurs horizons de possibilités.

The Making of the African Road

The Making of the African Road offers anthropological accounts of the infrastructural, economic, political, historical as well as experiential dimensions of the African long-distance road and explores its emerging orders.