Diplomacy of Architecture: Ghana, China and 60 Years of Spatial Engagement

Abstract

Abstract Africa- Asia relations entered upon a particularly intense and mutually entangling phase in the last two decades of the twentieth century; this process continues apace in this century. To be sure these relations have a long temporal sweep. Understanding holistically contemporary Ghana-China relations, and in particular the ways in which the manipulation of space has intervened upon and shaped the interaction must be located within this temporal sweep. Methodologically this work will engage discursively with the historical and contemporary information on some of China’s key construction and architectural activities in Ghana over the last six decades with the central aim of teasing out the changes and continuities (ideological, institutional, ideational and strategic) that have marked such undertakings. This work introduces in the process the idea of diplomacy of architecture as a useful analytic lens for exploring Africa-China relations.