Street Vendors Facing Urban Beautification in Accra (Ghana): Eviction, Relocation and Formalization

Abstract

This paper focuses on the consequences of the relocation processes of a group of street vendors evicted from downtown Accra in 2010. This eviction is seen as an emblematic operation of the decongestion and beautification of Accra’s city centre. Relocated in a public market, the street vendors set up new kinds of organizations, which were themselves characterised by division and competition for ruling the new allocated space. Based on empirical data collected between 2015 and 2016, this paper shows that vendors rebuilt a new order for themselves in the formal market. The paper stresses the daily control of the relocation space and raises the issue of the social and political transformation of the conditions of street vendors experiencing eviction and relocation. The development of the relocation space shows how power relationships between vendors, city dwellers and urban authorities are being reconfigured.