The birth of a town: Indigenous planning and colonial intervention in Bolgatanga, Northern Territories of the Gold Coast

This chapter focuses on the historical development and the planning of Bolgatanga’s urban setting. The chosen timeframe starts from the moment the first Europeans passed through the region, and follows the process of colonization. The chapter provides an interdisciplinary analysis starting from the historical growth of an urban entity that was later to be called ‘town’. The communities that inhabited the region thus followed a kinship-based pattern of residence. The chapter shows that peculiar kind of settlement pattern of Bolgatanga and its environs was an enduring feature of the landscape. The compound was the concrete expression of the size of the family, and the settlement was the direct outcome of larger kinship relations. The advent of colonization brought with it new infrastructures, intended to replace the old ones. In fact, the numerous little paths that passed through the region used by the locals and the caravans were gradually replaced by paved roads.