Nkawkaw’s Rise to Prominence and Socio-Economic Importance 1920 -2012

Abstract

The growth of urban centres and the process of urbanisation in Africa predate European arrival and colonisation of the continent. Even though this is true, it is also a fact that most of the modern day urban centres dotted over Africa owe their establishment and growth to European penetration of the African continent. In Ghana for instance it was European colonisation and its Western capitalist oriented economy among other factors that scaled up the magnitude and dynamism of urbanisation and the emergence of urban centres. The colonial administration which was guided by the principles of Western economic enterprise invested in transportation systems (roads, railways, ports and harbours) in the 20th Century in order to effectively explore and exploit resources in Gold Coast for oceanic transport. The effect of this development was that it accentuated the importance of the various areas where the transport systems were constructed and transformed such places into important urban centres. It is in this regard that Nkawkaw‘s rise to prominence and urban status is examined. Some other places whose position was also heightened by effect of transport are New Mangoase, Suhum, Nsawam, Kade, Akwatia, Swedru and Tamale. There were places that similarly rose to urban status because they served as trading post for the European merchants. Cape Coast and Accra are glaring evidence to this effect. At the end of the second decade of the 20th Century, the evolution of transport in Nkawkaw was completed with the construction of the Koforidua to Mpraeso road that passed through Nkawkaw in 1916, the Nkawkaw to Obomen road in 1921, the railway extension from Tafo to Nkawkaw in 1922 and the Accra-Kumasi road of 1923 that used Nkawkaw as a thoroughfare. The town of Nkawkaw which existed as a village at its inception has from the time it experienced these transport facilities grown in size and function. Nkawkaw has also transformed into an urban space and assumed the unrivalled position as the chief commercial centre and transportation hub of Kwahu. This thesis is therefore an extensive study of the socio-economic relevance of Nkawkaw as an urban space within Kwahu.