Sodom and Gomorrah

Sodom and Gomorrah is the largest slum in Ghana, it is also where I had class last Wednesday.

An Estimated 80,000 people live in this dense squatter settlement, strung along the banks of the now polluted Korle Lagoon in the center of Accra. As in other Sub-Saharan African cities, rapid urbanization is driving the growth of slums at an astonishing rate. Today over one billion people live in  urban slums worldwide. The United Nations estimate that number will double by 2030.

The name Sodom and Gomorah, an allusion to the Biblical story of a town so wicked that God destroyed it, reflects the popular perception in Accra that the slum is a den of vice and filth. The people who live here, mostly migrants from the impoverished Northern region of Ghana, prefer to call their home "Old Fadama" and contest the idea that their community is defined by crime.

The Growth of slums in third world countries has become a global phenomenon in the past twenty years. Rapid urbanization has resulted in the radical growth of slum populations. In the case of Ghana, 50% of the population is now urban, which is quite large when considering the landscape of Ghana and the fact that globally only 32% of the population is urban. This is highlighted by the fact that currently Lagos is the fastest growing mega city in the world! Of Ghana's urban population an astonishing 72% are living in slums.  The population of Sodom and Gomorrah has sky rocketed to an astonishing 80,000, double what it was just ten years ago. And with no end to urbanization in sight, one has to wonder the fate of slums like Sodom and Gomorrah thats conditions worsen with population growth.

The issue of slums dates back to the early colonial periods, but most slums originated from the 1990's. Even with the world's long history of slums, few cities have slum policy, as the issue tends to fall by the way side because few want to be concerned with it. It is generally thought that there are two approaches to urban regeneration, one can take a human rights perspective, or one can look at it from the stand point of economic efficiency. Ghana is a signatory of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees rights to housing, clean water and sanitation, education and work. With that said, one has to recognize that, "increased population density in inner cities inevitably leads to diminished accommodations and services. When housing, water, sanitation and other public services do not meet the needs of large numbers of urban residents, as in the case of Accra, their health and well being are at risk".

In the case of Sodom and Gomorrah there are few sanitary facilities and all kinds of waste end up in the lagoon.  Looking at the lagoon today you would not recognize it as a lagoon at all. It is filled with piles of trash and e-waste, which the children of the community utilize as a play ground as well as a bathroom. The health risks of such an environment are overwhelming. Not surprisingly, preventable infections and parasitic diseases remain the leading cause of morbidity and mortality among residents of the Accra Metro Area. 

Sodom and Gomorrah resembles the images of "poverty-porn" that news stations across the world are flooded with. The area is a major source or pollution and has been described as "a hideout for armed robbers, prostitutes, drug pushed and all kinds of squatters". People in this area sleep in shifts on the ground due to the extreme density of the population. Some of the women in the community sleep in the open and this makes them prone to rape or abuse, which is a common issue within the slum due to the fact that the area is not policed by the government. Being that Sodom and Gomorrah is an illegal settlement, the government refuses to grant it any protection, fearing that would be a validation of their presence on the government owned land. 

Walking around the slum, the first thing you will note is the smell, which renders all other senses useless. Once aquatinted with the stench, you will notice the people of the slum hard at work. Scrap metal works is a huge source of income in the slum, hence there are men everywhere sawing apart cars or other machines for the metal, which is sent to China. The women of the community are cooking over giant fires, or carrying huge bins of items on their heads. The people of the community are extremely hard working. As one Ghanian put it "work, or die". Despite the horrifying look of the slum and its informal economy, it is highly organized, or so I was told. 

Walking down the narrow flooded paths, children are seen everywhere. The high concentration of children is astonishing, I assume this is a result of the lack of birth control and the high rate of prostitution (which makes HIV a HUGE issue). Few of the children are clothed, and all of them are barefoot. The thought of being bare foot in that environment, was actually to much for me to think about. One small little girl had a makeshift weave made out of wires. I had to admire the creativity, but then stopped to think where those wires could have come from and how uncomfortable and unhealthy that must be. 

This Is Africa?