From Ancestral Lands to Academic Spaces: A Case Study of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana
Kwasi Kwafo Adarkwa
The paper examines how previous lands owned by clans, families and chiefs were ceded to the Government of Gold Coast/Ghana for the establishment of a university, has affected some 21 formal rural communities. To meet the need for a university, the King of the Asante Kingdom (Nana Prempeh I) ceded and gifted an eleven square miles of land for the establishment of a university college in Kumasi. With time, both the university and surrounding communities have grown in populations and spatial extent. Problems emanating include the encroachment on university lands and the occasional protests from community members. This phenomenon has not been investigated to any great extent, that is why there appears to be so much acrimony between the key major stakeholders. While the relationship should result in a win-win situation, it is currently an asymmetrical one. The objective of this paper is to examine how lands ceded to Government for university development and the conditions, if any, that were tied to the transactions. What have the impacts of these transactions been? What has the relationship between the various communities and the university been and how can it be improved? The paper will address these questions using secondary sources and interviews with selected community leaders.
Bio:
Kwasi Kwafo Adarkwa attended the elite Mfantsipim School, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), University of British Columbia and Michigan State University. He is currently an Emeritus Professor of Planning at the KNUST where he has spent virtually all his working life teaching and conducting research in planning and development problems. He has published widely in some mainstream journals including Cities, Land Use Policy, Property Management, African Review of Economics and Finance, African Transport Studies, Journal of Advanced Transportation, and others. In addition, he has edited two books on Kumasi and one on service delivery in Ghanaian human settlements. Apart from being a former Head of the Department of Planning and Dean of the Faculty of Environmental and Development Studies at the KNUST, he served as Pro Vice-Chancellor (2002-2006) and Vice-Chancellor of the KNUST (2006-2010). Currently, he serves as Chairman of the Board of the Land Use and Spatial Planning Authority of Ghana, Chairman of the Governing Council of the Institute of Local Government Studies, Chairman of the Governing Councils of the Agogo Presbyterian Women's College of Education, University College of Agriculture and Environmental Studies as well as the Kessben University College. He has just completed his autobiography entitled "Against All Odds."