Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana \u00a9Barbora Nemcova.<\/p>\n
In 2007, after offshore oil deposits were discovered near Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana, industry observers noted the rise of West Africa\u2019s newest oil city. A recent paper by Franklin Obeng-Odoom<\/a>, a research fellow at Australia\u2019s University of Technology, Sydney, School of the Built Environment, surveys Sekondi-Takoradi\u2019s post-discovery growth and suggests that the city\u2019s past should inspire us to be more confident about its future.<\/p>\n Sekondi-Takoradi\u2019s transformation has been well documented by Obeng-Odoom\u2019s peers, but his review of their efforts presents a compelling snapshot of the city\u2019s frenetic growth, which is as remarkable in capturing the scale of change as it is in finding the contrasts that exist between the city\u2019s old urban forms and emerging new ones.<\/p>\n The \u201coil fever,\u201d as Obeng-Odoom describes it, in Sekondi-Takoradi has created new jobs as\u00a0a result of more than 40 international oil companies establishing operations in the city since 2007. It has also spurred expanded university-level technical training programs and political and public discussions around how to best manage the resource opportunity. At the same time, greater investments in urban development, ranging from a new 180,000-resident satellite settlement to a municipal initiative to designate streets with names, are further signs of the city\u2019s transformation into a center of wealth creation.<\/p>\n In observing what is happening in Sekondi-Takoradi, Obeng-Odoom believes the city is coming full circle, building on\u00a0pre-oil achievements such as the\u00a0city\u2019s modern transport infrastructure network,\u00a0assembled over the last century, including road networks (1895), railways (1898), and later Africa\u2019s first artificial harbor (1975), which helped increase Sekondi-Takoradi\u2019s national and international importance.<\/p>\n These antecedents, however, provide something more than just historic parallels. They offer, according to Obeng-Odoom, an important source of resilience to help the Sekondi-Takoradi manage the social and economic challenges associated with oil developments:<\/p>\n “Social relations are likely to become increasingly complex and new contours of adjustment and maladjustment may arise, but they will not necessarily cause ‘social disruption,’ a ‘resource curse’ or ‘rentier state’ pressures. Institutions \u2014formal, informal, implicit and explicit \u2014 and rules, processes and customs matter: they shape, restrain and constrain the future.”<\/p>\n By attempting to show Sekondi-Takoradi\u2019s case as a contrast to what he sees as a prevalent attitude shaping how we perceive the rise of Africa\u2019s oil cities, Obeng-Odoom is not dismissing the challenges involved in growing economies that rely on resource extraction developments. Instead he is encouraging a more nuanced perspective on how oil will shape Sekondi-Takoradi\u2019s future.<\/p>\n Franklin Obeng-Odoom\u2019s <\/i>Political economic origins of Sekondi-Takoradi, West Africa\u2019s new oil city<\/i><\/a> appears in Urbani izziv, volume 23 (2012).<\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n